Fathers and Sons
by Dani Kin
Summary: "It is not flesh and blood, but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons." The warden is about the find that out when an exceptional blue baby comes into his life, bringing both joy and heartbreak. Epilogue is up and this story is COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

So some of you have heard rumblings of a massive mystery fic that I've been working on for months and today I finally start to bring it to you. And (shocker), it's NOT a Megs/Roxanne shipper fic! In fact, it stars one of the most under-explored characters in this movie…. the warden.

Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 1

Rating : I'm gonna rate the story PG-13 (aka T) overall for some swearing in later chapters, but this one is pretty PG (K+).

Summary : Relationships between parents and children are never easy. And when an exceptional blue baby falls from the sky into his lap, the warden needs to decide what to do with the little boy.

And none of this would be possible without my amazing beta, sharelle. All hugs and puppies I receive are shared with you m'dear.

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><p>James Woodridge hadn't become Warden of Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted at age 35 by being a man overcome by sentimentality. No, prison management was simply not a field that encouraged fanciful starry-eyed dreamers. Which was why part of him simply could not believe what he found himself facing at 11:30pm on a Thursday night.<p>

Being at work that late on a weekday wasn't that unusual. In fact, nowadays he usually slept on the sofa in his office. No, what was unusual was the amount of noise coming from his office and in particular, the source of those noises.

They were coming from a squalling blue infant he held in his arms.

He walked in circles in his large office, holding the child on his shoulder and continuing to rub his back in slow gentle circles. But the blue boy just would not stop crying. His wails filled the room. Hell, they probably filled the whole prison.

The warden was at his wit's end. The child wailed if he was held, but cried even harder if he was put down. He would throw his binky every time the warden tried to put it into his screaming mouth, and had already gone through two diaper changes even though he wasn't wet. He refused formula and had no interest in his toys. He just seemed to want to cry.

It had been hours. The baby had been fussy all day, but as soon as he said the word 'bedtime' the boy had moved into full-on crying. The warden had hoped the boy would cry himself into exhaustion but that was not happening.

He sighed. The warden had no idea what to do, and no idea what he was doing here with this child in the first place.

~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

When that strange pod had bounced into his prison yard two weeks ago his first impulse was to call the police or possibly NASA. But when he looked inside and saw a frightened blue infant with startling green eyes, he had made the mistake of listening to some hidden instincts and picking the small child up. Once the boy was nestled in his arms, he had promptly started rubbing his eyes with his tiny fists and had fallen asleep before the Warden had even gotten him up into his office.

So he sat on the leather sofa in his office and looked the baby over. He was blue. Really blue. Overall he looked human, though he had no hair on his head. That was fine, lots of babies were bald. The child had long dark eyelashes that rested softly against his cheeks as he slept. But the Warden was pretty sure that the pod had come from the sky.

He had to accept the possibility that he held an alien child here in his lap. And he had no idea what to do with that information.

The warden stared at the baby. What if he called someone and they hurt him? You heard things these days, about space aliens and people with unusual powers. In fact, this prison housed more than a few criminals who seemed to style themselves after comic book villains. And he had heard of more than a few encounters with shadowy government agencies that monitored and handled such things.

He wasn't a stupid man, he knew that if this child was truly an alien that someone would want to analyze its little body. Poke him, prod him, take tissue samples. Make sure he wasn't dangerous or just justify it in the name of science. But this was a baby. He had already come from somewhere across space and he was defenseless. And alone.

Much like the Warden himself these days. He had come home one day to find his wife in bed with one of her co-workers. Her reasoning was the same as every fight they had since he received this promotion - he was never home anymore. He was more married to the job than to her. In the end she had left him – or, more specifically, kicked him out.

It had been almost a year but the Warden still acutely felt the loneliness like a hollow little place in his heart every minute of every day. Except for right now. He flirted with the idea of keeping the child, and then handily dismissed it. What did he know about raising a child, much less a blue one from another planet? How would he keep the baby safe if someone came looking for it? And he worked way too many long hours to have a kid at home.

But then, this was the first time in almost a year that he didn't feel that bite of loneliness. And hey, this child didn't have anyone either. Maybe that was a good thing?

He hadn't intended to keep him indefinitely, in fact the warden hadn't planned on much of anything. However one thing was clear that afternoon – he was NOT going to be calling the authorities anytime soon.

The child was better off here with him. So he had tentatively stroked the baby on the head as it slept, while two burly guards entered with the pod and its contents. The Warden whispered for them to put their delivery down on his office floor and tried to set the baby down on the leather sofa. But as soon as he tried, the boy awoke and began to fuss. The warden picked him up again and he instantly fell back asleep, so he held the child while he examined the contents of the pod one-handed.

There was a small fish inside a small glass ball, whose eyes seemed to dart frightenedly between himself and the boy. Was it a pet? A toy? A snack? The warden tried turning the ball around but every time the fish righted itself to stare at him and at the baby. Well that was downright unsettling. He set the fish back in the pod, but it did not seem to like that. Now it was straining to look up at him over the lip of the door.

He tried to ignore it as he explored the contents further. There was a tiny seat, almost like a car seat, but with no seatbelts. And several screens and buttons covered in strange symbols. He thought better of touching any of them.

Then he noticed something small on the floor of the craft. A small blue glowing something that upon further examination almost looked like a binky. He touched it experimentally to the sleeping child's lips and the boy instantly latched onto it and began sucking. The warden felt oddly relieved. At least there was something about all this that made sense to him.

Just for good measure he took the boy down to prison doctor. Dr. Patari wasn't a pediatrician by any stretch of the imagination but it didn't take much physical examination to determine that the child was a boy and he was not human. The blue skin was obvious as was the unusual head shape, which lacked the cone shape or soft spot that one would expect on a newborn human child.

Less obvious was a prematurely-developed ability to track objects with his eyes and to respond to stimuli in ways that most humans could not until several months after birth. Though he could only make babbly baby noises himself, he seemed to understand a fair amount of human speech. And his cranial measurements were closer to that of a two year old, though he was clearly a newborn. He had a clear interest in everything in the medical wing and kept reaching for bandaids and cotton balls as though they were toys. The warden was glad that the doctor kept the surgical tools under lock and key.

Neither the warden nor Dr. Patari had a clue what the baby should eat, but the doctor thought it would be safe to try giving him some formula. He was confident that the suckling motions the baby was making on the binky mimicked the feeding patterns of human babies. So one of the guards was dispatched to the nearest store and came back with a can of formula and a bottle. They heated it up in the staff microwave and the doctor handed the warden the bottle, clearly expecting him to do the honors.

So he sat in the medical bay and pressed the nipple of the bottle in the infant's mouth. After a moment of confusion the baby attempted to suck. His lips seemed to fumble around the tip but he was getting the liquid into his mouth and swallowing most of it. The warden stared down at the child as he learned to eat his first meal on earth, drooling a bit out of the left side. He wished he had something to use to wipe his face.

And in the end, the doctor had no idea what to do with the baby either, but agreed with the warden that the child was likely to be seen as a scientific marvel. That made the warden nervous. He didn't want to give the child over to a pack of government scientists that would keep him in some freaky lab.

He returned to his office with the baby and sat him on the couch. The boy looked around, truly taking in his surroundings for the first time and seeming somewhat nervous. So the warden went into the pod, removed the equally nervous looking fish, and handed it to the boy. Instantly the boy wrapped his arms around the ball. And the fish curled itself against the glass, as though trying to press itself against the boy. They both looked happy. Then the boy shrieked and let the glass ball go.

Before the warden could catch it, the ball rolled off the sofa and crashed towards the floor… where it simply bounced and rolled across the office. The boy waved his arms in excitement and the fish looked no worse for wear.

Suddenly realizing his toy was out of reach he began to stretch his arms and fuss. He looked up at the warden, as though he expected him to bring the toy back to him. But instead the warden set the boy on the floor and rolled the ball towards him. The child shrieked with happiness again as the fish in the ball bumped into his leg. He batted at it, sending it rolling across the room the other way as he smiled and gurgled. He looked at the warden expectantly, clearly wanting him to fetch the ball again.

Only before he reached it, the ball moved of his own accord. The fish appeared to be swimming forward and steering the ball right back to the excited child. And they played that game over and over again, the boy shoving the ball away and the fish rolling it right back while the baby made excited happy sounds. At one point the boy pushed the ball to the warden and the warden smiled and rolled it back.

He was happy here. So there was no reason to call anyone, at least not now. Maybe tomorrow. Or the day after that.

And the next day he went out and bought a package of diapers, a case of formula, and a soft green blanket with little frogs on it.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

The warden muttered obscenities under his breath as he tried once more to shove the glowing blue binky into the wailing child's mouth. But the screaming baby was having none of it. He began kicking and shoving his hands in the warden's face as he flailed unhappily, and the binky went flying across the room. The warden let out a heavy sigh. He was running out of ideas and the boy wasn't the only one who was overtired.

It made him susceptible to the little voice in the back of his mind that whispered perhaps this wasn't such a good idea. It was selfish of him to try. He wasn't this boy's father and he never would be. What did he know about caring for a newborn? The child was obviously miserable and he had no idea how to fix it.

He bent down, child still struggling in his arms, and picked up the binky and slid it into his pocket.

He had one more idea and he walked behind his desk. From a drawer that used to keep personnel files he pulled out the soft green frog blanket. He tried covering the child's head with it. Maybe that would trick him into calming down.

No such luck as the child's fervent screaming got even louder and he started whipping his head frantically to get the blanket off. The warden winced and shifted the child to his other side as he reached up to remove it. And in that moment the child bucked and his large hard cranium smashed into the warden's nose. Pain blossomed across his face and he choked back an obscenity. That was it.

He set the child down on the sofa where he wailed and flailed further, reaching a fever pitch of frustration and sound. The warden walked across the room and tried to take several calming breaths amid the din. He crossed his arms angrily and glared at the source of noise and stress in his life. He was officially out of ideas. And his nose hurt from where the little bugger had cracked into it with his oversized cranium. It seemed like every time he looked at the boy his head was bigger.

The moment of realization was almost instantaneous.

He looked at the child; his face was tear-stained and flushed a deep purple from crying so hard. He swiftly picked the boy up and put one hand on the back of his head and tried to remember holding him for the first time two weeks ago.

'I'll be dammed,' the man muttered to himself.

His head was bigger. No wonder he was so unhappy. He didn't know much about babies but he knew that growing pains hurt and made them cry. This poor little guy must be nursing one hell of a headache right now between the growing, the intensifying frustration, and the plain discomfort that came with crying.

He experimentally stroked the boy's head firmly and amazingly the infant began to soothe. He pressed as hard as he felt comfortable, wanting to massage the sore muscles but not wanting to hurt the child he had come to think of as his little boy.

"I'm sorry Blue," the warden said in low soft tones as the infant gasped out a few more teary cries. "I should have figured it out sooner. Shhhhh. It's ok now. It's all going to be ok. Shhhhh."

The warden swore that the child understood his apology. The tears slowed and, after a few more pathetic hiccups, the baby appeared to visibly relax all over.

Finally the man was able to sit down and move the infant to his lap and give his tired arms a rest. The boy fussed as the man repositioned, but quieted quickly once the warden resumed pressure on the child's skull. He used the edge of the blanket to wipe the tears from the infant's face. The boy didn't look happy, but he slowly looked less miserable.

Finally, the warden fished in his pocket for the rejected binky and tried again to place it near the baby's lips. The boy instantly glommed onto it and began to suckle. As he did so, his tiny eyelids began to droop. Oh he would flicker them open quickly and watch the man, but he couldn't fight sleep and soon he was out cold.

The warden gave a sigh of relief. Finally.

He took off his tie and moved himself to lay out on the brown leather sofa, then kicked off his shoes. He shifted his weight so the baby rested on his left side, curled up against his heart. He adjusted the green blanket to cover the child on his shoulder and listened to the sound of the child's breath. Soon the soft rhythm lured him into sleep as well.

If someone wanted the boy then they could come and just try to take him from him.


	2. Chapter 2

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 2_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating : I'm gonna rate the story PG-13/T overall for some swearing in later chapters, but this one is pretty PG/K+._

_Summary : Relationships between parents and children are never easy. Especially when the warden finds himself having to discipline a blowtorch-wielding two-year old._

_Beta : Sharelle, I LOVES you. *mmmwah!*_

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><p>The boy clearly knew he was in trouble as he stared at the warden with wide guilty eyes. The warden angrily grabbed the binky from the trike and heard the machine power down. The binky was stuffed in his pocket and even the fish looked guilty.<p>

He picked up the boy in one hand and the trike in the other and hauled them roughly in the direction of his office as the fish, which the child had named Minion, rolled behind them. He didn't even wait until he reached the office to begin the lecture.

"No! This is not acceptable behavior Blue!" he started in on him as he pulled the child down the hall by his arm.

"I wanna go outside!" the toddler screamed in response.

"No. Outside time is after lunch," he retorted in frustration as his secretary Beatrice watched him haul the boy into the admin area.

"But I wanna!" At which point the boy started whining and kicking his legs and forcing the warden to practically drag him into the office as the fish rolled on, nudging the boys' legs.

"No. I have told you 'no' a dozen times. We don't go outside whenever you want!" He sat the child in the chair across from his desk and stood in front of it, towering over the angry toddler.

"We do not destroy license plates and we do not blow holes in the walls! Time-Out and I'm taking your minion away." He picked up the surprised fish in the ball and placed him in the desk drawer.

"Nooooooooo!" the child shrieked. "Minion!" He stood up from the chair and stomped his feet. "My minion!"

"No Blue. He is gone for today." The warden replied firmly, staring down the child.

Then with a huff the blue-skinned boy flung himself onto the chair and the warden knew what was coming. It was easy to see now. Although the boy was impressively verbal and cognitively dexterous, he was still a two-year-old. And like a human two-year-old, he didn't like the word 'no'. The boy was circling a total meltdown.

"If you are good for the rest of the day then you can have your minion back tomorrow."

The boy looked completely devastated and started to sob and scream at the same time.

"Now it's Time-Out time." The warden tried to grab his hand but the boy pulled it away. He was forced to grab more roughly and hold on tight as the child screamed and strained against him trying to get away.

"Waaaaaaaarrdeennnn Nooooo!" The boy shouted and went limp, forcing the warden to physically pick him up in order to place him in the empty corner of his office. As soon as he placed the boy there, the toddler ran yelling from the corner to dive onto the couch and kick the cushions. The warden charged over to him and the boy continued to shriek no over and over again. Someone listening on the other side of this door would think he was beating this child.

He placed him in the corner again.

"Time-Out for 5 minutes".

The child made angry pouty faces at him but stayed put. The warden walked back to his desk, eyes always on the boy and he took a kitchen timer out of his desk and set it for five minutes.

The boy made angry whining noises for a few moments and when that elicited no reaction he laid down on the floor and started kicking at the walls. The warden walked curtly over to the boy again.

"Stop doing that. We do not kick walls. Do you want another five minutes added to your time-out?" The boy's face crumpled and he gave an angry teary pout. "Stand up like a big boy, Blue." He continued to lie on the floor, pouting stubbornly up at the warden.

"I'll give you until the count of three. One."

The boy continued to glare at him, defiantly refusing to move.

" Two".

Now the boy looked nervous.

"This is your last chance. Thr—"

The boy got up and stood facing the corner.

"Good boy." And he sat back down at his desk. The kitchen timer informed him there as 2 minutes and 49 seconds left on the time-out. He took a deep breath and sat back down at his desk.

And then the warden heard the saddest most pathetic little cries. They were the cries of 'no one loves me' coming from the boy in the corner. The warden stifled a sigh and rubbed his temple. The kid was really pulling out all the stops today.

The warden ignored him until the little timer on his desk dinged. Then he walked over to the boy who was still staring at the wall, and touched his back gently. The boy made a huffing noise and turned around but refused to look at him. Still he wrapped an arm around the child's shoulders and gave him a squeeze. The boy's face was flushed purple from yelling and crying.

"I'm going to have Leroy take you back to your cell now. If you are good then I'll come down after dinner and play with you and read you a bedtime story."

"Minion?" he asked with a quivering lip.

"No you're not getting your minion back today," the warden responded firmly.

The boy began to make gasping sounds as he began to cry again. "Pleeeeeeease?" He looked up at him with tears rolling down his face.

"No," the warden responded, shaking his head. The boy continued to cry.

"Theatrics are not going to get you what you want Blue. If you are good today, then I will give him back to you tomorrow and that's final." The boy gave him pleading looks as hot frustrated tears continued to pour out.

"You can have your binky," and he handed it to the crying little boy who snatched it angrily. There was a knock on the door as it opened and a familiar guard named Leroy came in.

"Take him to his cell, no stops for any reason. And make sure you lock it when you go."

The boy gave the warden another pathetic look and cried softly as the big black guard led him away.

The warden nearly collapsed onto his chair. He reached for his keyring and unlocked a cupboard behind his desk and removed a bottle of scotch and glass. He poured himself two fingers and sighed, letting the warm alcohol surge through him as he took a moment.

Then he leaned down and examined the trike. How did he get a tricycle and why on earth would he cover it in license plates? Further examination of the thing revealed something even more surprising; it appeared to actually be made of license plates. What the hell? And how the devil did he get into the license division anyway?

Then there was the fact that this thing could apparently blow a hole in a wall. That was more than just astonishing; it was a possible major security breach. This situation had been contained by the quick thinking of several guards - those prisoners stupid enough to see this as a potential for escape had been quickly rounded up and would be spending a lot of time in solitary. But the boy was just a child who wanted to play outside and he was capable of building something like this?

Wow.

This toy was impressive and the warden felt oddly proud. He knew his boy was smart, but this was beyond even gifted.

His thoughts were interrupted by a thumping noise coming from the drawer. He tried to ignore it but it increased until he couldn't stand it anymore. With a frustrated sigh he opened the desk drawer and the fish stared up at him angrily.

"Giving me a migraine is not going to get me to give you back to him any sooner," the warden said harshly and moved to shut the drawer again.

"You're a bad man!"

He looked down at the fish in wide-eyed disbelief. There was no way the fish just talked. He looked at it for a moment then started to close the drawer as he watched the fish closely.

"You heard me," it said angrily.

He blinked three times and stared, then slammed the drawer shut. There was no way. No way this was happening to him. How much did he have to drink? The boy would sometimes tell him things that minion had said, but he assumed it was an imaginary friend situation.

"He's sad and he needs me," a pathetic voice called from inside the drawer and the thumping resumed.

Yes, this was really happening.

He opened the drawer, picked up the ball, and brought the creature to eye level to give it a wary look.

"The boy needs to learn the meaning of the word no," the warden explained cautiously.

"He knows it! You don't have to be so mean!" the little fish whined.

"Excuse me?"

"You made him cry and now he's all alone!" The fish began swimming in agitated circles

"He will survive one night without you," the warden replied caustically. Apparently the boy wasn't the only one who needed to learn how to self-soothe.

"He never has before! " The fish almost looked like it was going to cry. "I promised his parents I would look after him." It was actually shaking.

"And how exactly do you do that from inside a ball?" the warden replied in exasperation.

The alien fish glared at him. The warden sighed. He did not have time for this.

"If he is very good and if you are very quiet, then I will bring you to him, deal?" he offered.

The little fish fluttered with happy excitement. "Deal." The warden resisted the urge to shake hands with the ball. Instead he placed the fish back in his desk. Then he took a moment and finished his scotch.

Once the delightful burn of the alcohol receded, he picked up the phone and called his head of security.

"Walt, can you pull security footage from the license division for the last week? Yes, all of it. I want it in my office for review." There was a pause as he waited for a response. "As soon as you can get it upstairs. I want to look at it this afternoon."

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

As usual he was the last one to leave the administrative area of the prison, and he hit the lights and walked down to cell block A. He held the Minion fish in his arms but the creature was covered but his suit coat. It only took a moment to reach his destination, a little cell off to the corner closest to the admin offices.

The little blue boy was lying on the floor, coloring with thick crayons that he could barely grip in his tiny hands. He was sucking furiously on his binky as it glowed.

The warden used his keys to open the cell and the boy looked up guiltily as he walked in. The warden set his package on the floor at the end of the bed and sat down.

"The guards tell me you've been a good boy all afternoon," he said.

The boy sat up and looked nervous, the binky still in his mouth.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" the warden prompted sternly.

"I'm sorry," he whispered around the binky.

"Ok. That's a good boy." The warden loosened his tie and slid it over his head. "Come here."

The boy moved quickly over to him and wrapped his little arms around the warden's leg. The warden let him cling for a moment, and then pulled the child up into his lap, where the boy instantly curled up against his left shoulder. He gave the boy a hug for a quiet moment as the toddler sucked his binky. The boy seemed exhausted and relished the physical contact just like he had as an infant. Then the warden asked the question that had been bothering him all afternoon.

"Who taught you how to use the blowtorch? That's the only part I can't figure out."

"Nobody." The child looked up at him confused.

"How did you know how to use it?" the warden rephrased.

"I just did it." The boy replied and the warden stared at the boy for a long moment.

Well didn't that just beat all. Smart enough to build a working machine out of scrap metal at age two. Most human children didn't even know their ABC's at that age. He felt that burst of pride again, followed by a determination to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future.

"How about I get you some science books?" the warden offered.

"What are those?" the boy cocked his head quizzically.

"Books about how things work, like the trike".

The boy's face lit up.

"They will be for reading, not so you can build things out of license plates. Do you understand?" he said sternly.

The boy nodded.

"Next time you want to build something, come let me know what it is and I will get you the right materials. And for god's sake, don't you ever touch that blowtorch again without an adult. It's dangerous. Do I make myself clear?"

The boy nodded and the warden squeezed him tighter. The boy made a happy sound and snuggled him back, then let out a big yawn. Usually when the warden came down in the evening it would take hours of playing with trucks or dinosaurs before the boy would be this tired.

But the warden sensed that an early night might be in order after the tumultuous events of the day. He got the boy changed and in his tiny pajamas. He let him pick out a picture book and settled the weary toddler in his lap.

Then the warden read the book aloud as the boy happily sucked on his binky and leaned his head into the man's chest. The warden thought maybe next time he would experiment with teaching the boy to read it to him, the boy was clearly smart enough. But tonight the child was exhausted. He had clearly had a long day. When the story was over he closed the book and looked down.

The boy looked so sleepy and he had been so good. The warden picked him up off his lap and put him into bed. There he smoothed Blue's oversized forehead as he pulled the covers over the sleepy toddler.

Finally he curled a slightly faded green blanket around the child's shoulder and the boy immediately grabbed it in his fist.

"I have something for you," the warden said softly.

The boy's eyes opened fully. The warden picked up the jacket from the floor and removed the fish ball from it. The boy's face lit up.

"Minion!" Blue shrieked and wrapped his arms around the fish, clinging to it for dear life.

"Oh Sir!" The fish seemed to squeal with happiness.

"Now you two boys get some sleep." The warden kissed the boy on the forehead and patted the fish awkwardly on his sphere.

He picked up his coat and left the cell, locking it behind him as he went. He hit the bank of light switches next to this particular area and it became dark. He stood still for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief. It had been a long day. And in the quiet darkness he could hear two very small voices.

"It's okay Sir, I'm here now."

"I missed you so much Minion. Don't ever go away again."

"Never."

Then a quiet moment.

"I told him I can talk. And he didn't try to eat me."

"I told you it would be fine Minion. He's a good warden. He takes good care of me."

And the warden smiled to himself as he walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 3_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating : I'm gonna rate the story PG-13 overall for some swearing in later chapters, but this one is pretty PG._

_Summary : Relationships between parents and children are never easy. And conversations with overly literal three-year-old geniuses are difficult and confusing when there are no easy answers, even for the warden._

_Author's Note : The quotes in here are from a real book, "Science 101 : Physics" by Barry Parker. Good librarian cites her sources. _

_Beta : Without sharelle, this would not exist. No really._

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><p>"Warden?" a small voice asked.<p>

The warden glanced up from his work, surprised to see Blue standing nervously in the doorway, and clutching a familiar book.

"Can you read me another story?" the boy asked shyly.

That in and of itself was odd. Usually the warden had to tear the child away from his latest drawings and sketches at this time of day because dinner was being served.

"You already had two chapters this afternoon, Blue. And you should be getting ready for dinner."

_And you should be in your cell_, the man thought, though he had long since given up on actually trying to keep the boy locked in. The child pretty much had full run of the place during the day, though the guards were careful to keep him out of solitary or restricted areas.

Plus, the boy was perfectly capable of reading most of the book himself. While the warden felt it was important to maintain some type of discipline, he also knew it was rare for the child to want to be read to at this time of day. And even more rare for him to come up to the office to ask for it. Something was up.

"Please? Just one more?" the boy begged, hugging the book to himself.

The warden groaned. He really needed to finish this prisoner transfer paperwork. But as he studied the boy currently haunting the entrance to his office, he took note of something else troubling: Blue looked upset.

He glanced again at the pleading green eyes that were focused upon him. Now that the warden thought on it, the boy had seemed quiet and funny this afternoon as well. Usually when the warden stopped by to see him on his lunch hour the boy wanted to show off his latest drawings or play elaborate make-believe games. But today the little blue boy had only wanted to be read to and had been abnormally quiet.

The warden sighed, resigned. There was no denying that the boy looked confused and upset about something.

"Okay. Just one. Then back to your cell before dinner." He made a show of relenting.

The boy raced in and jumped onto the brown leather couch. The warden couldn't help but chuckle as he watched young blue fingers eagerly pry the book open to where they had left off. He got up from behind his desk and sat on the couch beside the boy, who instantly curled next to him and set the book onto the warden's lap.

"I don't know why you want me to read it again. We've already read this one twice. I could get you a new book."

"No." The boy shook head firmly. "I like this one."

"Okay," the warden chuckled and resumed a familiar cadence.

"…. After it was found that spectral lines split in a magnetic field, a third quantum number was added. It was called the magnetic quantum number and was represented by m. The values of m were the same as l, except they extended into-"

"That's wrong," the boy interrupted, pointing at one of the diagrams; some incomprehensible thing with squiggly lines and bars.

"What?"

"That's wrong," the boy repeated.

"The picture is wrong?" the warden attempted to clarify.

"No, this ratio. It doesn't work with the vari-abe-les in the fields". The boy let out an irritated sigh and his voice sounded wounded.

"Okay..." The warden wasn't sure what else to say to that. But he had a distinct feeling the child's distress wasn't really about the book.

The boy huffed and crossed his arms in front of him. The warden looked down at him for a long moment. Yes, something was definitely bothering him, that much he could tell. Cautiously, he resumed reading.

"It is easy to see that if you go out far enough, the recessional velocity will eventually reach the velocity of light in that a galaxy twice as far out is receding twice as fast. But according to Einstein's theory of relativity, the velocity of light is the limiting velocity in the universe. This implies that galaxies beyond this point can't exist, and therefore this is the end of our observable universe."

He took a breath and started to turn the page when he heard the boy sniffle. He looked at him closer and noticed that his eyes were watery. The boy looked like he was about to cry.

"Blue, what on earth is the matter?" he implored, shutting the book and trying to make eye contact.

"I miss my parents," he choked out as his lower lip quivered and the tears threatened to fall. The warden just blinked.

Well. That was not what he would have guessed. At all.

"Oh, umm, okay," he stammered and put his arm awkwardly around the boy's back, trying to rein in his surprise. It made sense he would miss his family but he had never really cried about it before. How much could you miss someone you only knew for 8 days?

_Ugh_. The sudden stab of irrational jealousy he felt at the boy's feelings made him feel like a horse's ass. And of course he would long for his real family – no matter how short he had known them. The warden pushed through it and collected his thoughts.

"Where is Minion?" he asked. The fish was good for things like this. Apparently he was a little older than the boy and knew more about their home world. The warden was surprised that the boy hadn't immediately turned to his fish instead.

"I left him in my cell," the child let out between small sobs, burying his face in the warden's side.

"Do you want to go talk to him?" the warden asked cautiously.

"No!" the boy gripped his side with a desperate ferocity. "I wanna stay with you. Don't send me away! Don't go." The child was gripping him like a barnacle and crying harder.

_Oh boy._Time to totally change tactics before he just made this abandonment complex worse.

"Oh, okay, you don't have to go get him", he said, stroking the side of the child's head as he cried. "I'm not going anywhere Blue, look I'm right here."

He let the boy cry it out, hating it all the while. He hated seeing the kid in pain. He hated that there was nothing he could do besides let it happen, and impotently dry his tears afterward. It was the kind of problem he couldn't cure, he couldn't fix. The warden could quell a prison disturbance with a few well-placed orders, but he couldn't uncollapse a black hole, he couldn't give the boy the family he should have had.

Then there was that other voice in the back of his head. The one that said he _could_ do better – that he _could_ give the boy a real home. The voice that said the little blue boy would be better off adopted out to a nice normal family – a family who could give him a swing set and a dog and send him away to summer camp. The voice that said it he shouldn't be trying to raise a child in a prison in the first place; that his motivation of keeping the boy safe and off the radar was just a cover for his own selfishness.

And he hated that voice, too. Probably most of all.

Eventually the boy's tears slowed and he looked up at the warden with sad eyes that betrayed more than what he was actually saying.

"What happened today?" the warden finally pressed.

There was a long pause.

"One of the other prisoners told me to go back to my own planet." The way he said it made clear there was much more to this story.

"Who?" the warden demanded. The boy just nibbled his bottom lip and wrinkled his brow.

"I don't know," he whispered guiltily.

Well that was a bold-faced lie. Unfortunately spending time around all the inmates had given the child more than simply the training to be a master escape artist. It had also ingrained some of their moral codes on the boy - namely that you don't rat.

The warden furrowed his brow.

"I know you know, Blue. Tell me."

The boy just squeezed his eyes closed tightly and shook his head.

This was a problem. But one for another time.

"Okay. When did this happen?"

"Breakfast." That at least explained his introversion at lunchtime.

"Is there something else?" the warden pressed. There was a long pause as the boy knitted his brow further, then looked up at the warden and finally spoke.

"Are you my daddy?"

Wow, he had really not expected that.

Maybe he should have assumed the subject would come up sooner rather than later. He had always meant to prepare some kind of stock answer on the topic but now he was caught unawares.

"Ummm," the warden stammered as he tried to put together something coherent. Before he could come up with anything, the boy huffed and pressed on.

"Because I know you're not my father but Wally Jenkins said that he was a daddy today and I asked him what that was. And he said that 'any idiot can be a father but not everyone can be a daddy'. And I asked if I had a daddy and he said that you were probably my daddy but he didn't sound very sure to me."

The boy was looking up at him, seeming both frustrated and confused. The warden took a big breath as the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Jenkins had gotten a call today that his wife had given birth to a daughter. The man was serving a 20 year sentence and by the time he was even eligible for parole his baby would be a teenager.

"Well Blue," he took a deep breath and tried to think of how to phrase it. "Some people would probably say I'm like your daddy. But daddy is one of those words like love that has multiple meanings. Some people say it means father, some people think it means something more… emotional."

The boy screwed up his face.

There was no denying the child was exceptionally smart. He was about to turn four and he could understand demonstrable and provable things like physics with ease. But he struggled with language, and it wasn't just pronunciations. He had a hard time with emotions and abstracts.

"I don't understand. I had a father?" Blue said it like a question, but they both knew he knew the answer. In fact the boy claimed to be able to remember his parents despite only being 8 days old when he was put into the pod and sent across the stars.

"Yes you did," the warden tread lightly, letting the boy steer the conversation where he needed to go.

"And he's gone now. Dead. That means never coming back?"

They had been through this over and over again and so had the fish. The little blue boy knew the answer, but he seemed to feel a compulsive need to ask and then found relief in being told the answers.

"Yes, unfortunately he's never coming back, Blue," the warden answered with honest sympathy. He gave the boy a moment and then pressed on. "You miss them a lot, don't you?" The boy just sniffled and nodded before he spoke.

"They would be like me," he whispered.

"Oh Blue." The warden wrapped his arms around the boy tighter.

"Then we would all be blue".

That broke his heart. After a long pause, the boy resumed his questions.

"So how come Wally said you were my daddy?" he said, head cocked to the side and expression puzzled.

"Probably because I take care of you," the warden answered simply. _And because I love you and want to be_, he thought.

"If my father were alive would he be my daddy?" The boy was still trying to wrap his large brain around the difficult concept.

"It would depend on how one defined it, but probably. And I'm not trying to replace him." There was the crux of the issue.

There was another long pause.

"Do I need a daddy?"

"No, you don't need one. Lots of people don't have them."

The boy seemed somewhat satisfied with that answer. Then he screwed up his face again and looked the warden directly in the eye.

"Can you be a daddy and a warden at the same time?"

The warden guffawed a little at that question, but it held back in when the boy frowned at him.

"Yes," he answered simply.

"Oh." The boy was quiet and chewed his bottom lip, the way he did when he was pondering something truly difficult. "Okay."

Then he looked back up at the warden. "Can we finish this chapter? You promised one more," the blue little boy reminded him.

"So I did," the warden said with smile.

He opened the book and the boy relaxed against his side. And as he began to read again, he truly hoped that he hadn't completely screwed that conversation up.


	4. Chapter 4

Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 4

Author : Dani Kin

Genre: Drama

Rating : Hey look I finally earn my T/PG-13 with a little swearing

Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. The warden is about the find that out firsthand when an exceptional blue baby comes into his life.

Chapter 4 – The warden has to deal with a sick kid.

Beta : Knock knock? Whose There? Sharelle. Sharelle who? Sharelle's awesome XD

Authors Note: So I worked in food service for a while, but if you've never seen a food service size can, they "have twenty-five servings totaling 13 cups with an estimated weight of 103½ ounces". That's how big the can of peaches are in my head.

Also a note to my international friends : White people in the American Midwest believe that 7up cures everything. It's like the dad with the Windex from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. No lie.

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~<p>

He had heard the whole story from one of the guards first thing in the morning and made a beeline for the boy's cell. They were supposed to call him at home immediately for things like this. Fucking incompetent new night staff.

Apparently the boy had not only gotten out of his cell during the night yet _again_, but he had managed to sneak down to the kitchen without being seen by any of the cameras or guards on sentry duty. There was suspicion that he actually crawled within the duct work. Once he arrived at his destination, he had opened a large food-service sized can of peaches and eaten it's entire contents.

The guards had found him wandering the halls in the dark clutching his stomach and now he was vomiting all over. Jesus.

Once the warden got to the boy's cell he was glad he had left his coat and tie back in the office. Blue was sitting near the head of the bed, looking nauseated and miserable. Someone had been kind enough to bring a bucket which was sitting on the floor between his legs. The whole cell smelled awful. And Minion was fluttering nervously in his ball on the bed, eyes trained on his master.

The boy looked up at him with a frown and watery eyes., and said "I don't feel good" in a sad pathetic voice. Dribbles of vomit stained down the front of his shirt.

"I can see that," said the warden as he came closer.

"He's been sick for hours," Minion fretted at the warden.

The warden sat down on the edge of the bed and touched the palm of his hand to the boy's forehead. He was clammy but not too warm. Good. Then hopefully it was just over-eating and not something worse.

The boy closed his eyes briefly at the contact then opened them wildly and vomited violently in the general direction of the bucket. He mostly made his target, though some of the sickness did splash onto the warden's shoes. So. It was going to be one of those days.

The boy's eyes watered as he vomited, orange chunks of peaches of all sizes flying into the basin. The warden rubbed his back gently as the blue boy continued to spew vomit. Minion rolled over so he was pressed against the boy's leg, trying to get as close as he could.

Eventually the boy's sickness slowed and the warden placed a large hand on his gurgling tummy. He wasn't entirely sure what the boy had done to himself by eating that much, but this was not normal. His stomach seemed distended.

A flicker of real worry reignited in his mind. What if the boy had damaged something internally? What if he was really sick? Well, that made up his mind for him. He wasn't going to do any work today. He would stay here with the boy, just in case.

The warden hated it when the kid was sick. So far there had never been a serious medical incident but that didn't make him any less anxious. The little blue boy had been ill a few times but it was always a short bug. However the first time he had been sick as an infant the warden didn't sleep more than twenty minutes as a time, terrified that the baby might stop breathing in his sleep.

Still, there were serious concerns that surfaced periodically whenever something like this happened. The boy's body wasn't built for life on this planet. There could be Earth germs to which he might have no immunity and there was so much that even the doctor didn't understand about his physiology. There were the possibilities of allergic reactions or anaphylactic shock, or any number of average everyday things which could turn out to be poisonous to the poor boy.

They were never sure what medications would work on him or, in fact, what they would do to his body. And the warden loathed experimenting on the child. That was why he took care of him here, safely hidden inside the prison walls, so no one could try to cut him open or pump him full of strange drugs.

And the more he thought as he watched the boy puke and spit, the more nervous he made himself. He had never seen the boy throw up this much. What if he got dehydrated? Could they give him an IV?

Jesus he hated this. He hated it when he was sick.

He used the cuff of the shirt to wipe the tears from the boys face as well as the vomit from the corners of his mouth once the wave of sickness slowed. He had gotten into the habit of keeping extra shirts in his office back when the boy was still in diapers and he would grab a clean one later.

"I don't feel good," the boy whined at him again once he was able to catch his breath.

"Shhhh, shhh, I know. I know," the warden tried to say in the most soothing tone he could muster to his poor sick boy.

The boy was curling himself into a ball now.

"Can you lie down in bed for me?" the warden asked, and after a beat the boy pathetically lifted his arms up to him. The warden hooked the child under the armpits, slid him into a horizontal position, and laid the boy's head on his pillow. The boy stretched out his legs a bit and looked antsy.

"I need you to rest," the warden instructed and smoothed his hand against the boy's clammy forehead. The child frowned.

"Yes Sir, you need to rest," the fish echoed.

"How about I get you some 7up?" he warden asked gently. He didn't know what else to do for the boy at this point.

"Ok," the boy responded pathetically.

He kissed the boy on his clammy forehead and made sure Minion and the bucket were positioned nearby.

He whistled to the guard down the hall who was quickly dispatched on errand for white soda and a straw. Meanwhile the warden waited until he was sure the boy wasn't actively vomiting, than he rolled up his sleeves and emptied the bucket into the toilet. Finally he rinsed it perfunctorily in the tiny sink and brought it back to the child's bedside.

When a guard returned bearing the soda it was not the same guard he had sent. It was Leroy, a guard that had worked in the prison for years and had known Blue since his first day here.

He came straight up to the Warden and, handing over the cold can, asked bluntly, "How's he doin'?"

"I don't really know. He doesn't have a fever but he is vomiting. A lot," the warden answered with furrowed brow. He opened the can.

"Do you want me to go get the doc?" the burly black man asked his boss.

The warden considered it for a moment before nodding. Leroy turned to go, then changed his mind and walked over to where the boy lay.

"Hey kidlet. Hear you're a master criminal now," he teased him. "Today peach theft, tomorrow you'll rule the whole city, huh?"

The boy gave a weak smile amid the nausea.

As Leroy left the cell he turned back to the warden.

"Some of the guys want to know if they can visit him."

The warden raised an eyebrow. Leroy took his meaning and elaborated.

"The story's goin' around. The escape artists and lockpicks are all bragging on how proud they are of him, but a lot of the guys are wondering if he is going to be ok."

The warden nodded. "I appreciate the concern, but I don't want him to have any visitors today. Maybe tomorrow if he is doing better." The warden kept an even tone and tried to sound reasonable.

Leroy nodded then paused for a moment as though he wanted to say something more. He leaned in close to the warden and spoke in low tones so the boy wouldn't hear.

"Word is that there might be a beat down of the new guy in the yard on account of what he did to the kid yesterday."

_Wait - what?_ Why was he always the last to know about these things? The warden sighed and tried to focus on the situation at hand instead of trying to tease out what the hell was going on here.

"Station extra hands for yard time and let me know if anything happens. But if anyone else asks or calls for me, have Beatrice tell them I'm taking the day off."

"Got it boss." And with that Leroy was gone.

The warden swished the straw around in the can of soda to dispel some of the bubbles before letting the boy sit up and take a sip. The child started to gulp it down and the warden took it away. He didn't need the boy making himself worse. The boy gave him a whiney pout but at least he wasn't actively puking any more.

So this was as good a time to get to the bottom of things.

"Look, I already know something happened yesterday," the warden said frankly, letting the boy have the soda back. "You can save both of us a lot of headache if you just tell me what it was."

"They didn't let me have any peaches at lunch. But I like the peaches," the boy said tentatively, looking from the warden to Minion guiltily.

"Who didn't let you have peaches?"

"One of the new prisoners. He took the bowl right off my tray, Warden," he pouted pathetically.

"So you thought you would sneak down in the middle of the night and make yourself sick by eating a whole can-full," the warden summarized pointedly, crossing his arms.

"We were playing burglar," the boy said defensively.

"Oh so Minion did come with you on this little adventure then?" he asked, looking at the fish harshly. The fish purposefully avoided eye contact with the man, giving him the answer he suspected. "And what do you have to say for yourself?"

Before the fish could respond, the doctor walked in. Fine. The issue of discipline could wait until the boy wasn't yakking everywhere.

The warden hovered, trying and failing to hide his anxiety as the doctor went through the paces of examining his patient. He listened to the boy's heartbeat, ran his hands over his bloated stomach, and checked his throat. Finally he stuck a thermometer in the boy's mouth, then removed it with a simple "hmm". Just when the warden was about to throttle the man, he spoke.

"Well he doesn't appear to have any other illness that I can discern. Just the vomiting. So I'm going to say that it's from over-eating and his system isn't taking kindly to it." The doctor shook his head and chuckled. "Take a breath, Jim. He'll be fine."

The warden relaxed a bit but still wanted to be sure. "Did he... could this cause any permanent damage? Internally?"

"I don't think so," Dr. Patari said. "His body is usually more resilient than the average human being's. We've both seen him walk away from rough housing that should have left bruises or cuts without a scratch on him. I think his internal organs probably function much the same way. But just to be safe I want to keep him on bed rest for the next two days."

The warden nodded along.

"He doesn't seem too dehydrated right now, but I want you to keep pushing fluids at him all day. Even if he doesn't want to drink them. Something simple like broth for meals. And if he wants to sleep let him sleep. Call me if he gets worse."

"How do I know if he's getting worse?" The warden wrinkled his nose.

"If you see a marked increase in vomiting or if you see any blood at all. He's paler then usual and that's to be expected, but if his eyes get glassy or he starts to act delirious, let me know. Also if he spikes a fever or has trouble breathing. Those are your symptoms to lookout for." Dr. Patari explained calmly.

The warden nodded. Those were things he could keep an eye on. "How long do you think he's gonna be like this?"

"Hard to tell," Dr. Patari responded. "If he's still vomiting like this tomorrow, let me know. But I think he'll probably stop by this evening. And even if he seems better tomorrow, I want him on rest and fluids. None of his usual adventures." The doctor turned and stared pointedly at the boy, who was lying on the bed, half-listening. Then the man left.

The warden let out the breath he hadn't noticed he was holding. The boy was going to be fine. He was. He just needed to repeat that over and over again so the knot in his stomach would let up.

Then without warning the little blue boy vomited again. But unlike the last time, it was a far shorter and less messy ordeal. And again the warden wiped the tracks of watery tears off his face when he was finished.

"Hey, how about we go up to my office? I'll wheel in the staffroom TV and we can watch cartoons," he offered.

The boy looked at the fish then asked "Can Minion come too?"

"Of course Minion can come, too. And we'll bring your blanket. And your binky."

The boy smiled weakly.

The warden had been trying to get the boy to give up the binky for weeks now. He usually only let him have it at night, since he was just past his fifth birthday and too old for a pacifier. But this was a special exception.

"And some books? Maybe for later?" the boy asked softly.

"And some books."

The boy looked happier than he had all morning, and the warden helped him sit up, trying not to let the worry show on his face as the child seemed momentarily dizzy. Instead he picked up the nearly threadbare green blanket and laid it across his shoulder. Then he looked around on the bed.

"Where is your binky Blue?" he asked the boy gently.

The boy vomited again and then sobbed out "I don't know" with a ragged breath.

"I think it fell behind the bed, Sir," Minion supplied. His ball was still leaning against the young boy's leg as though he wished he could wrap the child in his fishy fins.

The warden got down on his knees and easily saw it glowing from the corner. He fished it out and wiped it on his pants before putting it into the boy's mouth. The child wrapped his lips around it and sucked weakly, then closed his eyes, clearly somewhat soothed.

Then the warden picked up the exhausted little boy and gripped him tightly. He was getting heavy. Soon he would probably be too heavy to carry at all. But today the boy simply put his head on his blanket and flopped his arms loosely around the warden's neck as the man carried him.


	5. Chapter 5

_Title : Fathers and Sons Chapter 5_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Rating : PG-13_

_Genre: Drama_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. And nothing makes for anxiety like the first day of school._

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

The warden inspected the room. It seemed clean, and, well, normal. The walls were decorated with pictures made of bright primary colors and the whole building smelled like chalk and crayons. The smell was oddly reassuring actually - it reminded him of his own school days. And he really couldn't beat the location.

No, this would be a good place for him.

The woman who ran the school seemed nice. She was sitting in front of him, talking about how the school was funded by private donations from those in the community who believed in nurturing children with particularly unique abilities. It all sounded great, but he found himself especially distracted by the playground in the yard.

The boy had never gotten a chance to play on a swing, maybe he would like that. There were a lot of things here he would probably like.

The school was highly competitive and restricted to a select small group of gifted kids. The warden had laughed a bit at the cheeky name, but that was what Blue would need. There was no way he could put the boy in public school. He would be bored to tears. And that would open both of them up to too much scrutiny.

There was an issue of tuition and it wasn't going to be cheap. But he could afford it. He might have to forgo the new suits for a while and eat some cheap dinners, but he would make it work.

No, this would be a good place for the boy, he told himself. The boy needed something like this.

The woman talked about the 'uniquely enriching activities' and 'educational opportunities' provided to the children at the school and he smiled and nodded. He didn't really know what that meant, but it sounded good. He could picture Blue here. The boy enjoyed hands on activities and he briefly imagined him happily playing with other children.

"And we have one boy who is particularly musically gifted and he leads the class in various sing-alongs," the teacher said proudly and with a large smile.

Huh, the arts. That was something that he never thought of. He had played some lullabies for the boy as a baby, but he probably didn't know much about music. Maybe the boy could learn to play an instrument or something. That was supposed to be good for kids.

The more he heard the more convinced he became that this place would be a good fit for his boy. Then the tables turned and she asked the questions that he had been preparing for.

"Now why don't you tell me a little more about your son, Mr. Woodridge? His name is Blue? Spelled like the color?"

He took a breath.

"Yes." He blew past the son bit. That was…. way too tricky to get into. Best to just let her assume.

"He is adopted and he's a very smart boy. He likes science and figuring out how things work. Umm, he likes drawing, particularly robots, and building things."

"He's been… homeschooled until now but I think he needs to learn to be around children his own age. He can read at a college level and he creates highly intricate machines." He let a hint of pride show through in his voice there. "But he is very shy. He can be…. strangely literal as well. I think he just needs to do things with other kids."

"And you work over at the prison?" she raised her eyebrow at him.

"Yes," the warden replied. He was used to people being slightly unnerved by his profession. "He will probably come straight from there."

"Oh, that's fine," the woman replied with a slightly strained smile.

"There is one more thing," he took a deep breath. "The boy does have a slightly unusual look about him. He has a skin pigment disorder and a large head. He is also bald. It's a genetic condition. But he is perfectly normal otherwise."

"Oh, that's not a problem!" The woman quickly assured him. "We have a very diverse class here. In fact, we have another child with vision issues and last year we had a boy in a wheelchair."

The warden nodded, again happy to let her assumption stand that he was somehow disabled. Because there was no way he was going to tell this lady that the child was a space alien.

The woman was a bit odd, but she seemed to genuinely love what she did. Her enthusiasm for the classroom activities, particularly the music lessons, was palpable. And this is what the boy would need. Someone who could be excited about teaching him.

"Well, based on what you've told me, as well as based on the IQ test scores you sent over last week, we would be happy to offer your son enrollment here at the Lil' Gifted School. Now there is some paperwork….." She trailed off as she shuffled the papers together.

And after several things had been signed and dated, he shook her hand firmly. They were all set for Blue to start classes next Monday morning.

On his way out the door, he further inspected the art on the walls and smiled to himself. Yeah, his kid could draw way better than this. The kid was gonna do fine.

He walked back over to the prison and headed straight for the familiar little cell. As expected, the boy sitting on the bed reading one of his new science textbooks amid the flutter of pieces of paper suspected from the ceiling by binder clips and red string.

That had been the project last weekend. For some reason the boy had insisted on hanging his drawings that way. The warden had given up decoding some of the twists and turns in his logic at times and this was one of those times.

He stared for a moment as the boy didn't notice his presence, completely absorbed in what he was reading. It made him smile. Soon the boy wouldn't have to sit in a lonely cell by himself and read. Well, he did have the fish, but Minion appeared to be taking a nap in his ball on the pillow.

And he quieted the little voice inside that fretted about if it was safe to take him outside the prison walls. He was 8 years old and he wasn't a baby any more. And it was becoming more apparent that he needed to be prepared for some kind of life in the world, rather than be protected from it. A small private school a block away would be a good way to ease him in.

"How's the reading goin', kiddo? You liking your new book?" he asked, jolting the boy out of his deep concentration.

"It's a good book," the boy answered with a big grin and a nod. "There's astrophysics in this one." He looked so damn pleased with the book. So this was probably a good time to tell him.

"Blue? How would you feel about going to school?" the warden asked, leaning in the doorway.

The boy cocked his head, confused. "What's that?"

"A place with kids like you to meet and play with. And you would learn - from a teacher and from new books," the warden explained, letting the smile creep across his face.

"Kids that would look like me?" he asked with wide elated eyes.

_Dammit_. He needed to backtrack. "Well, they wouldn't be blue, but they would be your own age. And they would be smart like you." The boy seemed to think for a moment then burst into one of his enthusiastic smiles.

"Someday I would like that," he said.

"How about Monday?" the warden asked neutrally. The child's mouth rounded into a surprised little o. "You're going to start school next week."

"Next week?" he repeated, face pulled into a nervous frown as he chewed his bottom lip. "With other kids?"

"Yep," the warden responded. He was trying to be calm and not pushy. Oh, the boy was going whether he liked it or not, but he was trying to let him get used to the news.

"I don't want to go," the boy shook his head, pulled up his knees, and crossed his arms over them.

"Will you give it a try, just for me? I think the other kids would really like you," the warden tried a bit of reverse psychology that he knew would probably work. The boy was always so eager to please.

"Well….. it would be nice to play with someone besides Minion," he offered quietly. It wasn't quite enthusiasm but it was a first step.

"That's a good boy," the warden said with a proud smile. The boy uncrossed his arms.

"Minion and I want to play superheroes tonight. And he's just terrible at it." The warden heard the little fish hrumpf, indicating he had probably been awake and listening the whole time. "Can you be our evil villain?"

The warden chuckled under his breath. "Sure, kiddo." He bought the boy some comic books on a whim a few months ago and that was his favorite game now. And it was fun to mwahaha at the boy.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

"So school tomorrow, Blue," he indicated to the boy, who was tucked into bed but looking nervous as hell. The boy nodded. "You're gonna do just fine," the warden tried his best reassuring voice.

"It's going to be an adventure, Sir!" Minion added enthusiastically from his spot next to the boy.

"Can you come with me?" the boy asked him, his eyes begging.

"School is just for kids. But you'll do just fine, Blue," the warden responded and patted him affectionately on his bald blue head.

"I don't wanna go. Don't make me go away." Oh boy, now he was starting to look panicked. The warden knelt down by the edge of the bed.

"Hey hey kiddo. You're just going to get on the bus and go to school for a day then you'll come right back here." He made eye contact with the boy, who let out a big sigh and then looked up at the ceiling.

"You'll be just fine. Good night." The warden leaned in and kissed the boy on the forehead. Then a small blue hand grabbed his own before he could go.

"Warden?"

"Yes?"

"Can you stay here? Stay with me?" the boy asked in a shaky scared voice, squeezing the warden's hand tight as he asked.

"You mean for the night?"

"Please?" the little blue boy looked at him with pleading eyes.

God, the last time he had spent the night here the boy was what? Five? He had been sick. Ahh yes, the peaches incident. The warden hadn't touched a peach for six months after that miserable day.

He exhaled deeply. The warden had a big day of his own tomorrow, between seeing the boy off to school and the Office of Budget Management auditors coming in for their yearly review. He really shouldn't sleep here since he knew he would wake up stiff, exhausted, and in a piss poor mood.

But the boy was gripping his hand so tightly, thin little blue fingers digging into the peach of the back of his hand.

"Fine, kiddo. Scoot over. You better not hog the bed," he said with as much of a smile as he could muster to reassure the boy. "That goes for you too, Minion."

The little blue child instantly relaxed his grip on the warden's hand and moved over. The warden left the cell to turn off the lights then made his way back to the bed by the light of the fish's bioluminescence.

The warden removed his belt and dress shirt before kicking off his shoes. He set an alarm on his wristwatch before taking it off and setting it on the floor next to the head of the bed. He crawled into bed next to the lanky boy and it was just as uncomfortable as he remembered. The boy curled up to him and repositioned Minion up by their heads. Then after a moment the boy broke the snuggled silence.

"I've never met any other children before," the boy whispered in the dark, fisting the man's undershirt. "What if they're scary, daddy?"

"They're not scary. Just be yourself and give them a chance. They are going to love you," the warden said simply in return, letting the rest of that statement, the 'just like I do' hang unsaid.

"Now go to sleep like a good boy, Blue."

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~  
>"Don't make me go!" The next morning found the boy clinging to the warden's leg.<p>

Today was the big day. The warden had gotten up early this morning, after the predictably terrible night spent on a prison cot with an 8 year-old that seemed to somehow simultaneously thrash and grip him like a barnacle.

He already spent the morning fighting with the boy about clothing. Blue refused to wear the jeans and button-up shirt the warden had bought for today and insisted on wearing his orange prison uniform. He tried and tried to convince the boy that this was how people dressed in the real world, before just giving up and letting him wear what he wanted. Honestly, the warden felt like a walking sore bruise and he didn't feel like fighting that battle. Especially since it was looking increasingly likely that he was going to need to be the bad guy and actually force the boy to go.

"Now, Blue, you need to get on that bus," the warden tried to sound firm but reassuring at the same time, as he pried the boy's fingers from his thigh.

He had hoped he could let the boy walk the short distance to school eventually, but that was too much to send him alone on the first day. He was concerned the child would simply not go or wander off chasing a butterfly or something else that piqued his interest. And in order to keep the paperwork in order he had to follow the standard work release procedure to arrange transport.

Now he simply had to get the boy to stop being so difficult so he could snap this picture and the guards could get him on the bus.

"I want to stay here with my books," the child whined, trying now to hide behind him.

"Hey. Kiddo. I need you to be a brave boy," he tried to turn and grab the boy but Blue was too fast and darted out of his grip.

"Blue. Hey. We're gonna take a picture before you go so I need you to stand still and smile for me, ok?" the warden tried to distract him. But the boy wasn't having it, instead seeming to enjoy darting excitedly as though this were all a game.

The warden had bought a new camera and a brand new roll of film just for today. All the pictures he had of the boy were from when he was very young and he felt like this was the kind of thing that should be documented. So before the bus came to pick the child up, he called the boy into his office and asked Beatrice take a photo of the two of them.

Or he had tried to anyway. The boy was refusing to come out from behind him, and running around every time the man tried to get a handle on him, somewhere between defiant and playful.

But the child needed to get to school on time and the warden needed him to not be here when the auditing team arrived. Which would be any minute now. The stress and a lack of sleep had him right on the verge of losing his patience with the child.

"Blue, come here. You need to go to school. That's the way it's going to be. Now no more silly games," he snapped. The boy finally stopped moving and the warden was able to grab his arm.

"Can Minion come with me?" the boy asked abruptly.

"If I say yes, then you need to take the picture and go. Deal?" The warden offered and the boy nodded.  
>Now that a solution had finally been reached, the warden knelt down on one knee next to the boy and put his hand on his shoulder. The boy still looked nervous but he managed a smile at the camera and Beatrice snapped off a few shots.<p>

Then Blue looked up at the warden, biting his lower lip, suddenly more nervous than playful. The warden squeezed his shoulder and gave the boy the most reassuring smile he could offer.

"You are going to do just fine, Blue. And you're going to have fun. I promise."

That seemed to push away some of the boy's nerves and he gave the warden a little smile.

Finally the warden gave the boy one last pat on the shoulder before turning him over to the two guards outside his door, who were given instructions to grab his Minion, put him on the bus, and see that he made it inside the school without delay. The boy walked away with them, then turned back to the warden one last time. The warden waved at him and Blue smiled a little more back.

With every step away his kid seemed to gain a bit more confidence. Which was good, but made the warden feel a little sad. His baby boy was growing up.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

He had just shown the auditors out when he was startled by the sight of the boy, running towards him at a gallop down the hallway. He had a bright smile on his face that made him look ecstatic.

He proceeded to throw himself at the warden, who picked him up in a big bear hug.

"How was your first day of school, Blue?" He held the boy up so they were face to face.

"Fantastic! There were all these children Warden and they were all there and there was one boy and he can fly and I think he's the boy from the other pod and he's an alien just like me!" Blind elation shone on the boy's face.

"Whoa whoa, slow down," the warden chuckled. "A flying boy?"

Blue nodded.

"Does the flying boy have a name?"

"Wayne. And everyone likes him even though he's an alien." The boy's eyes were wide and excited.

"How do you know he's an alien?" the warden asked, his back starting to twinge from holding the boy up. Ugh, this was killing his back. He was too old for this. He set the boy back on the ground as the child answered the question.

"Because we met before. When we were coming here." He explained enthusiastically as though it made perfect sense.

"Coming where?" The warden had no idea what he was talking about.

"To this planet. He knocked me off course in an asteroid belt." The boy gave a little frown. The warden had learned from experience just to believe the boy when he talked like this. The child had displayed his remarkable memory for early life experiences countless times - though this was one of the more fantastic tales he had heard him tell.

"Did you talk to him today?" the warden asked and suddenly the boy buried his face in the warden's leg and shook his head.

"Were you shy?" The boy nodded. "That's ok. You can be shy."

"He made everyone a snack with laser beams from his eyes," his face not quite leaving the man's pants.

"Oh, did he now? What kind of snack?"

The boy looked up at him and screwed up his nose as though he was thinking. "Popp-ed corn." He finally answered.

"He made popcorn with his eye lasers?" the warden parroted back to him skeptically, just trying to make sure he understood.

The boy nodded with eyes too wide and reverential for him to be lying.

"Well, that sounds pretty impressive."

"I want to make the popp-ed corn too warden," the little boy said haughtily and then laid out his logic. "The children like the popp-ed corn. And they like Wayne. So if I make it for them, then they will like me, too."

_Shameless bribery might work_, the warden thought. And at least the boy wasn't terrified any more.

"Okay," he replied. "We can make some popcorn in the kitchen tonight and send it with to you school tomorrow."

The boy shook his head. "No, I have to show them that I can make it. Then they'll like me even though I'm an alien too." The boy chewed hit bottom lip. "It might take a few days to make something suitably impressive. Can I use the blowtorch?"

Ahhh, child logic. But he couldn't say no to the boy when those green eyes of his were so wide and excited.

"Okay, Blue. You come up with a genius way to make popcorn and you can bring it to school," the warden said, shaking his head with a smile.

After all, there was no harm in letting the child try to build a popcorn maker.


	6. Chapter 6

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 6_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Now the warden finds out there is trouble at the Lil Gifted Kids School._

_Beta: Sharelle in the mornin', sharelle in the evenin', sharelle at supper time….. With special thanks to dal_niente for being my creative consultant._

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~<p>

He had barely walked into the schoolhouse before stopping dead in his tracks and taking in the fact that every surface was covered in what appeared to be blue paint. Oh, lord. That and the fact that the school was now in a completely different location, as well as the thin reedy tone of voice of the teacher when she called him this afternoon, added up to nothing good.

"Sit down, Mr. Woodridge. We have to discuss some very serious matters concerning your… son," she said frostily. The placement of the pause in there put him further on edge.

"Look, I know Blue can be a handful but he's a good kid –" the warden started, but he was quickly interrupted.

"We have a list of incidents that show otherwise. He rarely pays attention in class and has very limited social skills." The woman spoke as though she was reading from some kind of prepared speech and that annoyed him.

"Well, that was one of the reasons for sending him to school, so he would learn them," the warden replied, and then instantly regretted the way it made him sound like he was trying to be a smart ass. "Look, I just know that things have been a bit rough since the incident with the popcorn but I think if you just give him a little time to settle in –"

She continued as though nothing he said made any difference. "Mr. Woodridge, in the three months that boy has been here he has set fires, broken windows, and personally threatened me with a dodgeball. The damage would be worse If not for the Scott boy being able to rein him in. He could seriously injure another child. And I'm afraid that's not the kind of behavior we are equipped to handle at this facility." She laced her fingers together and meeting his eyes.

"Then there is the matter of the explosive device he set off today."

"With all due respect, a little paint does not constitute an explosive device," the warden said defensively.

"We have a very strict zero tolerance policy at this school towards weapons, including explosives, Mr. Woodridge. Now you may be used to rough behavior from the criminals in your facility but that is not appropriate behavior her at the Lil' Gifted School!" her voice becoming shrill.

The warden rolled his eyes. The kid had gotten paint everywhere. He didn't blow up the building

"He might do better in a facility that caters towards children who have severe behavioral problems," the woman finished.

"Excuse me?" The warden was so shocked at that statement that he could only blink at her for a moment. "If his problems are this severe why is this the first I'm hearing of them? I knew about the incident with the popcorn but there have been no other communications-"

She cut him off again. "Mr. Woodridge. You're not his parent. You're not even his legal guardian," she lectured him sternly and crossed her arms. "I'm not even sure if you have the authority to enroll the boy in school."

"Funny, that wasn't brought up when I paid the money to enroll him." The warden mimicked her nasty tone and narrowed his eyes at the woman.

"Well, these issues were raised by a parent of another student in the class who did some looking into the matter. The fact is you misled us and exposed vulnerable children to a boy with a history of violent and dangerous behavior problems."

He gaped at her. There was no way they were talking about his kid. Blue wouldn't knowingly hurt a fly. All he did was constantly try to impress Wayne Scott and the rest of the children with his creative inventions and try to get their attention in his own theatrical way even though he was different.

Then the extension of that line of reasoning hit him like a ton of bricks.

"Which parent?" The chill in his voice surprised even him. "Which parent is making the complaints and 'looking into the matter'?"

"I don't see how that's relevant," the woman stammered.

"Oh, I think it's plenty relevant. If there is an issue with Blue and the Scott boy, then why the hell aren't his parents here?"

"The Scotts, as well as other parents, have made their feelings perfectly clear to me. We cannot continue to accommodate a child that threatens the welfare of this institution."

The warden responded slowly, thinking aloud. "You mean you cannot continue to accommodate a student whose very existence might lead to more questions than the Scott family wants to answer, don't you?"

The teacher narrowed her eyes at him. And everything suddenly became clear.

"That's why he is here," he continued, "Why they founded this school. To hide him in plain sight. And Blue doesn't exactly hide does he? He might expose the fact that Wayne Scott isn't human."

"Your 'son' doesn't strike me as particularly human either," she replied curtly.

"Well, I may not be his father, but I do have the authority to remove him from an environment that clearly doesn't seem to have his best interests at heart. Good day, ma'am," he said curtly and marched out of the building.

His anger seemed to increase with every step as he walked to his car, threw himself inside the vehicle, and slammed the door. Then he released a ragged breath. How did this all get so wrong? This was supposed to be a good place for him. It was a gifted and talented school with another goddamn alien on the roster, for crying out loud! Where the hell else was he ever going to belong better than this?

Jesus. Problems this severe didn't happen overnight. This must have been building for months.

And the boy didn't tell him. It was like pulling teeth to get that boy to give up anything, even when he knew it was important. But without even knowing that things were going so wrong…..

Dammit, that made it all make sense.

There had been signs - giant blinking signs - that something was wrong. The boy had been quieter than usual since he started at that school. After the fiasco with the popcorn maker, he spent all his free time sketching out more inventions and hours building things that the warden didn't quite understand (like gun that made little glowing cubes) because the boy refused to tell him what it was for. He would only make vague pronouncements about how this would be the one, or how impressed the other children would be.

And he knew the kid was somewhat bored, but what child wasn't sometimes bored in school? He seemed to be learning something in the English and social science classes but the math classes bored him to tears. He wouldn't say anything about music except that he didn't like to sit in the circle with the other kids.

And here the warden had been, like a fool, telling him to give it time, telling him to do good in school, telling him to just be himself and try harder next time. Which the boy had taken literally as he kept trying to build something that would curry their favor. The warden realized he had inadvertently been making the whole situation worse because each time the boy would fail he would get the message to blame himself, and try harder.

_Fuck fuck fucking fuck._There was a tinge of heartbreak in that realization, but mostly there was anger.

Anger at the bitch of a teacher who would let something like this go on. Anger at the Scotts, thinking they could do whatever they wanted because they had money. Anger that their kid, who could throw his considerable power around and use it to bully someone who was markedly different so no one would look twice at him. Anger at the other kids who just let it happen ,and anger at the boy for not telling him.

And anger at himself for not knowing. He should have known. Dammit, he should have seen it. He knew him better than anyone, except maybe Minion. He knew something was wrong, he knew the boy was acting strangely. He knew he was struggling, but he thought it was just an adjustment period after a lifetime of social isolation and he was trying to give the boy space. But he should have pressed harder, he should have called the school, he shouldn't have fallen down on this.

_Fuck_.

He started the car and the thoughts just continued to come. These children had probably been prejudiced against him from the start. A scrawny bald blue boy in a prison uniform? Oh that would make for a hell of a first impression. If only he had forced the boy to wear those jeans.

Getting a bus to drive him less than a block? Yeah that was fucking stupid. How was he supposed to be seen as normal being dropped off in a prison bus? Not to mention the fact that the pair of guards he had tasked with dropping him off returned to the prison laughing hysterically at the prank they had pulled by bringing him into the building in chains.

"We thought it would be funny," one of the guards had offered lamely. The irritated look on the warden's face and the sharp reassignment to yard duty quickly confirmed that it was not, in fact, funny.

And then the inventions. He should have asked why the hell the kid was building a helmet anyway, and he should have pressed him - forced him - to explain what was going on. Instead of just letting him flounder willy-nilly until he lashed out.

The warden felt ashamed. This was all his fault. He had failed so totally as a parent that his child was incapable of interacting with a peer group. He should have been a better parent.

_Fuck fuck fucking fuck._

He pulled out of the parking lot with his hand at his temple, raging at the unfairness of it all.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

When he got back to the prison he made a beeline for that familiar little cell.

"Blue! Get over here this minute, young man." He tried to keep a handle on the tempest of frustration and guilt roiling inside himself, but he was probably failing at that too.

The boy didn't look surprised. He got up from where he was sitting on the bed and stood in front of the warden warily.

"You're not going to be going back to that school anymore."

The blue boy looked relieved and then guilty, which then morphed into an odd little smile.

"Is it because I'm the bad boy?" he asked excitedly.

"What? No," the warden shook his head at the silly question. "But I know you set of a paint bomb and made a giant mess," the warden spoke harshly.

"It's not my fault! They called me Mr. Blueberry Head," the boy replied defiantly, as though that was justification.

The warden sighed and started to respond. "That is no excuse, young man. Children… can be mean sometimes-"

"The teacher didn't stop them. She would just watch," the boy interrupted him angrily.

His eyes narrowed. That bitch. So it was worse than he thought.

"Blue, what the hell happened with you and Wayne Scott?" the warden asked, crossing his arms.  
>The boy's lips tightened.<p>

"I'm the bad guy."

"What does that mean?" the warden asked, baffled.

"He has superpowers, daddy!" Blue crossed his arms across his chest and his tone resentful. "He can fly and he's invulnerable and he has hair! And it always looks perfect!"

The warden just blinked at him. "What does his hair have to do with anything?"

"You're not listening!" the boy actually stomped his foot. "He has superpowers, and everything I do is wrong! It's all bad! He is the good guy and I'm the bad guy!"

"Blue, everything you do is not bad-" the warden started but the boy started yelling.

"And I'm good at it! I'm smart and they're not nearly so smart, especially not stupid Wayne with his stupid stars. So I made them blue to see how they liked it." The boy scowled , then gave an impression of the evil little laugh from playing superheroes.

"Blue, I understand that these kids were pretty rotten to you, but that is not an excuse to cover everything in paint," the warden said exasperated.

"They hate me," the boy said defensively.

"They don't hate you. They don't know you. They just…. They see someone who is different and that scares them."

"I'm scary?" his eyes got wide.

"No." God, he was explaining this wrong. "They just see you and they think that they can pick on you. Because you're different. But it won't be that way forever. You'll grow up and get out there in the world and see that you can make things however you want them to be."

The boy took that in with a funny smile. "Whatever I want?"

The warden hoped to god so. Because he had no idea what the hell to tell this kid otherwise. He had underestimated how much everyone was going to take one look at the boy and see a freak. He had underestimated it a lot.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

When he got back to his office he slammed the door and paced. Hell of a fucking day. He thought about having a scotch, but the idea of sitting still to sip it made him feel nauseous. He had too many thoughts racing through his head.

Maybe he had been all wrong to hide the boy. After all, it's not like anyone had come looking for him in the last eight years. He had let his paranoia rule him. Now the child had no clue about life outside this prison.

The kid couldn't spend his whole life trapped here, and clearly even pre-screening safe places like that school was a crapshoot. He deserved to be able to go out and make his own way in the world. Travel. Learn more then he could just get out of books. There must be some people out there who would enjoy his intelligence instead of holding it against him.

And screw the Scott family, just screw them. They had the money and power and connections to build an entire school just for their precious little alien darling. There was no doubt in the warden's mind that the Scotts didn't cower and look around corners when it came to their son. They probably had these plans lined up since he was in diapers. Wayne Scott looked human enough to pass as their biological child and or at least one they could have easily adopted.

_No one was ever going to challenge their ability to enroll their son at school_, he thought bitterly. B_ecause everyone will always believe that he's theirs. _That was not a luxury he would ever have. Plus, he had nothing - nothing - to showed that Blue even existed, much less was his.

Blue didn't have a birth certificate or a social security number. Was he a citizen? Would he need a green card? How was he going to function in society as an adult without any legal paperwork proving his existence? The tension finally overcame the warden and he had to sit down.

He had been going about this all wrong, all kinds of wrong. He didn't need to protect the boy from the world by hiding him from it. He needed to turn this anger into something productive. He needed to play the game. Clearly that's the way the Scott's were handling their unusual circumstances and he had just been colossally outplayed.

He stuck his head outside the office and shouted to his receptionist. "Bernice, get me the number for Franklin Jacobs."

"Franklin Jacobs the lawyer?" she asked in surprise.

He resisted the urge to snark back something like 'No, Franklin Jacobs the potter' and instead simply snapped, "Yes." He went back in his office and resumed pacing.

Franklin Jacobs was the most hard-nosed and most expensive lawyer in Metro City. He was more than just aggressive; he was well connected and manipulative as fuck. The warden had met the man in court a few times and each time had been distinctly unpleasant. Being cross-examined by him was like being constricted by a patient yet hungry python.

Jacobs was also rumored to be on personal retainer to the Scott family. So if there was anyone in this city who might know how to get documentation for an alien child it was going to be him. Jacobs was the best. And the warden knew if he was going to do this, he needed to do it right.

He poured himself that glass of scotch and tipped it back. Soon Bernice brought him the number and the warden swallowed nervously before dialing. People like Jacobs understood power.

"You've reached the office of Jacobs and Associates. How may I direct your call?" an overly cheerful receptionist answered.

"This is James Woodridge, warden at the Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted. I need to speak to Mr. Jacobs. Personally." He kept his voice even and firm, but not too forceful.

"Do you have an appointment for a conference call?" the receptionist asked.

"No." He let the silence hang in the air.

"Is this about a client?" she tried desperately to clarify, a bit taken aback.

"Yes." Again he let the silence speak for him.

The woman stammered at him for a moment then put him on hold. After a moment or two of banal saxophone music, he finally heard the recognizable voice of the man he was calling.

"James Woodridge. Not someone I expect to call me out of the blue. Has one of our clients done something at the prison that we should know about?" Jacobs characteristic drawl managed to make him sound both aggressive and bored at the same time.

"No, this isn't about a prisoner. It's something of a more….. personal nature. I'm looking to engage legal counsel," the warden said, trying to keep his tone even and measured.

The man on the phone scoffed. "If that's what you need I can transfer you to our appointment clerk and-"

"No. I want you to handle this matter." He interrupted abruptly, but he was careful not to give it away. He could hear the wheels turning in the other man's mind.

"And what type of matter would that be?" Jacobs asked, with an air of practiced detachment.

The warden took a deep breath before speaking again.

"First, I want your personal assurance this is not something you're going to hand off to one of your flunkies on their first year out of law school or your yes-men junior partners. The fewer people that know about this the better." There was a long silence and the warden's heart was in this throat, waiting to see how that would go over.

"Acceptable. Now what type of legal assistance to do you find yourself needing, James?" the man purred.

"Immigration and citizenship." He laid it out bluntly.

"Look, I've got better things to do than help you procure a green card for your sexy housekeeper." Jacobs was almost teasing him now, and it played on his last good nerve.

" And I'm not talking about someone to clean the floors. I'm talking about a child. A child that is not merely an illegal alien, but one who actually doesn't come from this world. I believe you have handled something like this before, no?"

There was a long pause.

"I have some… experience with the unique challenges a situation like that would present."

"Good."

"But it's a long process. And I assume you would want a certain amount of discretion until matters became finalized."

"That would be correct," the warden replied a bit too quickly.

"I don't come cheap, James," Jacobs added with that slow bitter drawl.

"Money isn't an issue."

Oh, it was an issue. The warden had savings but he had no idea how much something like this could cost. But he couldn't blow the deal now by appearing weak. He would cash in his 401K or sell his stuff or something. At least he didn't have to worry about private school tuition now.

"Well then, I'm happy to welcome you to the Jacobs and Associates client roster. Let's set up something for next week. You can explain the situation and bring the child down here –"

"No. You don't need to see the boy to get this done," the warden said curtly. He couldn't open the boy up to more gawking.

Jacobs chuckled. "Fine. I'll have preliminary papers drawn up by Friday. You're a tougher man than I thought, Woodridge."


	7. Chapter 7

_Hi everybody! Hope you had a good Christmas. I spent mine being violently ill. It sucked. Hope yours was better._

_Anyway, this chapter was a BLAST because I got to write Megamind as a smart-ass teen and it was TONS of fun. Quick, on to the snark!_

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 7_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Here the warden experiences the trials and tribulations of having a teenager – particularly the challenges posed by an alien genius tip-toeing into a life of crime_

_Beta: Sharelle. Word._

_Special Creative Consultant : Dal Niente _

_Author's Note: I suck at coming up with my own shadowy government agency, so I'm borrowing Joss Whdeon's_

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

The warden saw him out of the corner of his eye as soon he walked in. The blue teen was sitting in a holding cell within the precinct, far from all the other suspects in lock up, many of whom were staring at him.

Inside he gave little sigh of relief, but he was careful not to let it show. At least the boy hadn't been sent to central booking. That meant there was still a chance to take some control of this situation.

He did not stop or even let the boy know he was there, instead heading straight for Captain Roy Alber's office. In his hand he held an envelope full of papers that he was hoping not to need.

"Hello, Roy," the warden greeted the man behind the desk, interrupting some kind of business with a pair of plainclothes detectives. The captain nodded at them and they walked out, leaving the two men alone.

"Hello, Jim. How's life in prison management treating you?" the man asked coolly.

"Oh you know, the same old same old." The warden shrugged and tried to put out casual vibe though there was nothing casual about his reason for being here. The other man regarded him for a moment then got straight down to business.

"James, I called you as a courtesy. Word is you've taken responsibility for this…. particular charge. But he was arrested attempting to break into an aerospace engineering firm." The captain flipped through some papers on his desk. "Any idea why he would want to break into…. Laddistch International?" He crossed his arms and stared at the warden.

The warden had to admit, something about that name sounded vaguely familiar, but not familiar enough that he had a single clue what it was.

"Absolutely nothing, Roy." He sighed. "Any way we can talk this down from B&E to Criminal Trespassing?"

The captain shrugged. "I think the prosecutor's willing to cut a deal on a first-time juvenile offender, especially since he didn't actually take anything and didn't seem to make it farther than the lobby. That is, as long as his legal guardian is willing to assume court-mandated supervision and community service."

The warden nodded to himself. At least that was good news. The other man continued.

"DA's office will contact you with further details, but they'll need you both back in court in front of Judge Osborn on the 14th," Albers advised.

Osborn? Crap. He would need to help the boy prep a statement and lose that chip on his shoulder before court, or she would rip him a new one. But it was a good deal and he planned to make the boy take it.

"Thank you, Roy. I appreciate it." The warden turned to leave the office.

"So what's wrong with him?" the policeman asked before he made it to the door.

"What do you mean?" he replied, unsure what the other man was asking.

"Well, he clearly suffers from some kind of deformity," Albers scoffed.

The warden could feel his nostrils flare as he blinked. "Excuse me?"

"The detectives have a pool going. Odds are currently running two to one in favor of birth defect but we also have some takers for science experiment gone horribly wrong. Even got one man who swears up and down he's an alien," the other man said with a chuckle.

The warden clenched his hand into a fist and bit down on his anger. He let the other man's laughter fade into a tense silence.

"I need to take him home now," the warden replied frostily and strode out of the office before he said something he would regret.

Blue didn't see the warden approaching the cell, but the warden knew the look the teen was wearing well. It was a 'don't fuck with me look' that the boy must have learned from some of the more hardened prisoners. He was clearly using it to scare the others in the holding cell away from him, or even keep them from looking at him too long.

The warden gestured to a detective standing by the cell. "Open up." The force and authority in his voice made the woman move quickly towards her task.

That was when Blue looked up and saw him. The face he was making quickly shifted from angry defiance to '_oh shit'_.

"Get up. We're leaving," he said, angry and harsh. The boy quickly obeyed and followed him down the hall and to the elevators in silence. Well, the two of them were silent.

The warden could hear the gasps and see the wide eyes from officers and civilians alike, gaping at the gawky blue-skinned teen. He walked angrily onto the elevator and pressed the button for the garage. Everyone in the elevator was staring at the boy and he wanted to slap them senseless.

It didn't help that the angry look was back on the boy's face.

They got off the elevator and the boy silently followed him to his car. The warden tucked the envelope safely into the door pocket as the boy went around to the passenger side. Once they were safely inside, the warden exploded.

"What the hell were you thinking? Breaking into a research lab?"

The boy looked at him defiantly but didn't say anything.

"Is this what you're going to do with your life? Burglary and corporate espionage?"

"I wasn't going to actually steal anything. I just wanted to send myself some files," the boy replied haughtily.

"Great. Hacking. If you would have actually gotten far enough to do that, then we would be dealing with the Feds. I can't just walk you out of a federal penitentiary!"

"Whatever." Blue rolled his eyes and looked out the window.

"Don't you 'whatever' me, young man! I just got called in to pick you up from a goddamn police station." The warden was yelling now and gesturing wildly as he yelled at the boy.

"You are damn lucky that I know people willing to cut you some slack on this. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have to walk in there in front of all my colleagues and take you out of there?"

That caused the boy to snap his head around to face the warden.

"Yeah, it must have been hard for YOU. Everyone staring at YOU, wondering why you were with the deformed alien freak." He scowled at the warden.

"Blue, you have got to find a way to ignore-"

"No. No, don't," the boy crossed his arms and was off on a rant. "You're going to try another one of your delusionally cheery pep talks where you try to convince me this world is all hugs and puppies".

The boy threw his hand melodramatically over his sizable blue forehead. "If only I would give people a chance. It's like shool all over again. Your response to the world is to tell me everything will be fine. But it won't. You saw the way people see me. All anyone sees is trouble, bad news, a big, blue-headed alien freak. It's my destiny. And I didn't ask you to come get me," he added.

"Oh, you're so smart. So you would rather be sent to central booking?" the warden asked sarcastically.

"I may as well commit crimes; I'm stuck in prison anyway." The boy threw his hands out with his usual theatrics.

"Yeah, you've got it so rough," the warden thickened the sarcasm. "All the books and computer equipment you want, even though you keep going on about this ridiculous plan to be a 'supervillian'". He actually made air quotes around the word. "Not very 'super' of you to get caught committing your first crime."

The warden knew it was too far the second it was out of his mouth. Especially with the Scott boy running around in a cape and tights, saving kittens from trees and calling himself Metro Dude or something ridiculous like that.

"Well, I'll never make that mistake again," the surly teen hissed, actually sounding hurt.

The warden felt a bit of his anger recede into guilt. He turned on the car and started driving towards the prison.

After a long moment, he reached out for the boy's shoulder. It was immediately yanked away.

"Just... just leave me alone."

Ok, he did not want to be touched. Fine. But a part of the warden longed for the days when he could fix anything with nothing more than a well placed hug or snuggle. God, that had been years ago. It was like a switch in the boy had been flipped and now he almost never let anyone touch him. He barely tolerated it from Minion – now that the fish had those little robotic suits that allowed him to walk and grip things.

The silence between them seemed to stretch even farther than the miles between the jail and the city centre.

"So what happened?" the warden finally asked.

"What do you mean what happened?" the boy snapped back.

"Well, how do you get from walking home from tutoring to 'I should break into a random research lab' to being arrested?" the warden clarified.

The boy shrugged. He clearly wasn't interested in talking. _What an unusual and unexpected development_, the warden thought sarcastically. But after a moment the boy did find something to say.

"It wasn't random."

"So why there?" the warden replied. The boy went back to sullen silence as he stared out the window and said nothing. "Fine. So how the hell did you end up getting arrested?" he tried again.

"I must have triggered a silent alarm and the next thing I know there are cops all around me with guns. They screamed at me to take off my mask and I tried to tell them I wasn't wearing one. Then they tazed me, and the next thing I knew I was coming around in the back of a squad car. Is that what you want to know? You happy now?" Blue replied bitterly.

The warden exhaled slowly as he made a free right. He was about to say something but the boy plowed on.

"So they took me back to the station where everyone was staring at me like I'm a total freak. Then they asked me what my name was, and when I told them they all had a good laugh," he finished, crossing his arms across his chest defensively.

_Shit. This name business again_. He kept hoping that if he put it off, the boy would pick something less ridiculous sometime in the next three years.

"I'm not getting into this with you again. If you don't like your name then you are welcome to change it when you turn 18, just like everyone else who wishes they had a more exotic name," the warden monotoned with rehearsed exasperation. But the boy exploded back at him in a way that was certainly not rehearsed.

"You named me after the color of my skin! How would you like it if people called you White? Or maybe next time I see Leroy I should say, 'Hey Black'!"

"Dammit, Blue, tha-"

"Megamind! My name is Megamind! You know this!"

"I am not going to call you 'Megamind'. That is a stupid name and I know you're smarter than that," the warden retorted. Any guilt about his previous comments had fully receded as anger sparked yet again. "These supervillian theatrics were cute when you were little but you need to stop acting like a child".

"You know, don't pretend you understand me," the blue boy snapped back, matching his anger. "You don't know the first fucking thing about being me!"

"Don't you use that language with me, young man!"

"Fuck. You," the boy responded defiantly, clearly challenging him just to see what he would do.

"You are grounded as soon as we get home," the warden hissed. Although he was unsure how he would accomplish that feat, short of stationing himself outside the boy's cell day and night or drugging the stubborn genius teen senseless.

"Oh, that will be terrible for me. Stuck inside a prison cell all day. Oh wait." The boy's tone was nasty and still taunting him.

"If you want a punishment young man I'm sure I can come up with something suitable to fit the crime," the warden barked back.

"What are you gonna do, take Minion away from me?" The boy rolled his eyes.

"Don't fucking tempt me. If you're going to act like a goddamn child then I will treat you like one!"

"Oh, so you get to swear."

The warden almost screamed in frustration.

The boy was blessedly quiet for the rest of the drive, simply smirking out the window. Days like today, the warden found himself wondering what the hell he was thinking when he took that baby out of that pod.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

The warden's brain worked overtime as he walked away from the cell blocks.

They had continued to fight as they approached the prison and while walking down the halls. The whole mess of a day had turned into a shouting match, with the warden yelling, "Look at your life! Look at your choices!" to which the boy shouted back, "I hate you and I HATE THIS PLANET!" Then he had turned and stormed off, stomping loudly all the way to his cell and pulling the door closed with a loud bang that sounded like it might have broken the hinges.

Damn kid. The warden had left the boy to sulk in his cell and stationed Leroy outside it. With any luck it would buy him some time to come up with a punishment that might sink in.

But he kept coming back to Laddistch International. Aerospace engineering. There was something familiar about it. Goddamn it. What was it?

When he walked back into the office, Beatrice looked like she was about to be sick.

"There is a man in your office," she said shakily, her voice more timid than usual. "He just burst in and said he's from some government agency. An Agent Carson?"

The warden rubbed his temples. He wanted nothing more than to tell this guy to buzz off, but he didn't need to court trouble with the feds. God only knew what this man had said to make Beatrice look that nervous. Fine. He would deal with whatever the feds wanted then he would deal with Blue.

He tucked his precious envelope under his arm, strode into his office, and found a very average looking man standing behind his desk. He was wearing a black suit that screamed 'Fed' and examining the only picture in the whole place. It was small and in a silver frame that usually sat on his desk.

"This your kid?" the man asked and instantly the warden's eyes narrowed. He didn't have the time or patience for this today.

"Why don't you put that down and we can discuss who the hell you are and what brings you to my facility today," the warden replied gruffly. He moved quickly across the room, protectively plucking the picture of himself and Blue on the kid's first day of school out of the man's hands and setting it back in its proper place.

The warden gestured for the man to shave a seat, but noticed the fed pointedly declined to sit in the uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of the desk. Instead he remained standing, pretending to look at the various certificates and boring office artwork on the walls.

"Agent Carson. S.W.O.R.D. You familiar with that acronym?" the man finally asked.

The warden shook his head.

"Sentient World Observation and Response Department."

That was a vague acronym if he ever heard one. "What is your business here, Agent Carson?" the warden asked, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of his tone.

"I'm here to talk about you, actually," the man replied. "James Woodridge. Youngest man to ever become warden of the Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted at age 35. An impressive achievement, especially considering that it cost you your marriage. I heard your ex has twins now."

Carson didn't speak aggressively; he merely listed off facts as though he was leading somewhere.

"Why the hell are you reading me my biography?" Now the warden was baffled as well as irritated.

"Just to let you know that we've been watching you for a long time. Watching him, too. Must have been a good day when Jacobs finalized that paperwork." Carson nodded towards the envelope that the warden was still holding in one hand.

The warden felt a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach and reflexively clutched the folder of papers.

"What do you want?" He enunciated every word slowly.

Carson picked up an old golf trophy from the shelf and pretended to examine it. "Mr. Woodridge, what I want is to tell you that we were under the impression you had this particular charge under control. If you don't, then we will be forced to step in. Now, we could take him off your hands this afternoon if that's what you want."

The warden felt there was a hot knife twisting in his gut. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. He scrambled for an idea of what to say. What would make this man go away? What kind of plan would work? He could barely breathe and the room seemed so small. Still, he hardened his face, trying to stare the other man down.

"You've got a lot of nerve walking into my house and making threats like that." His voice was low and threatening and portrayed a confidence that he honestly wasn't sure he could back up. They couldn't take him away. Not after all this time. Not now.

"Good," Agent Carson nodded. "If you don't want that, then neither do we. Contrary to popular myth, the US government doesn't enjoy ripping alien children away from their homes." Carson's eyes were trained on the warden, disarming his indignation with their friendliness.

Why was this man being so goddamn friendly?

Carson turned his entire body to fully face him, and finally sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

"Look, if the boy has a stable home here, then we don't need to get involved. We're not extraterrestrial Child Services. But these things... these kids…. have a tendency to go wrong at times. It's not always their fault." Carson looked him dead in the eye for the next part.

"But my job is to contain threats to the citizens of this country, and to consider the well-being of this planet. I don't relish locking up children, Mr. Woodridge, I really don't. As long as the threat is contained, than we have nothing more to discuss. But if he becomes one, then we will need to have a very different conversation."

"I understand." The warden nodded gravely. Yes. Yes, he understood. He would have to find a way, find some way, to make the boy understand.

"No one wants to throw away the key on him for a little youthful rebellion. Though, the CIA is up my ass, wanting to know how, exactly, that kid knew about that firm's involvement in that kind of secure robotics research." Carson actually chuckled.

The warden's eyes widened. Jesus. Now he felt like he couldn't breathe again. Carson noticed his response but didn't remark upon it. Instead he just leaned forward in his chair.

"We've already retrieved the stolen files from his server, so no harm no foul here. But my advice? He needs to get out more. It's good that you've got him working with private tutors, but he needs to learn to walk in this world a bit. Let people get used to him." Carson stood up and buttoned his suit coat.

"Send him to college, get him a passport, have him get out of Metro City and see the world. If he's as smart as the intel says, I can probably get him a job at S.W.O.R.D. with a lab the size of a football field and an unlimited expense account once this flirtation with being a bad boy subsides." Carson made the offer with what seemed like a genuine smile on his face.

The warden merely nodded, his face still pinched and unable to relax while this man was here, no matter how nice he seemed to behave.

Finally, Carson pulled a tiny white business card out of his suit coat pocket and placed it on the warden's desk.

"Please contact us if you have any further questions. But I sincerely hope this will be the last time I see you." He nodded at the warden and walked out the door.

The warden shrank into his chair, nauseated and almost dizzy from shock. He had no idea how to react after all this. But one thing was damn sure. He would do whatever it took. Ego didn't matter; pride didn't matter. They wouldn't take him. They couldn't have him.

His eyes ran over the familiar picture of himself and Blue. The boy looked nervous but he was smiling. And he looked so proud but tired. First day of school. Last day before disaster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Listen, young man, you have a court date on the 14th. You will stand up in front of the judge and it will be all 'yes m'am' and 'no m'am'. You will answer any questions she asks truthfully, leaving out the part where you actually succeeded in your mission to send the files to yourself."

The boy looked at him in sudden surprise, then down at Minion.

"Yes, I know about that, but you'll find that the files are gone. Courtesy of some of my friends in the federal government. However, you will plead guilty to the trespassing and take however much community service the judge assigns you. Are we clear?" He enunciated every syllable of the last sentence.

Blue nodded.

"I'm taking your computers away for the time being. You can have them back when you finish doing your community service. I've got you all set up at the local library."

"What? No. Why can't I just do KP duty here?" the boy sputtered.

"You're supposed to be serving the community. This gets you out into the community. And don't even think about getting Minion to do it for you, he'll be staying right here. " The warden put on his resolve face.

"I don't want to shelve books all day!"

"You won't be shelving them. They pay people to do that. You'll be dusting them."

The boy's mouth opened to a little o in shock before fading into a scowl. Minion, ever watching his master's face, mimicked the same scowl.

"I hate you. You can't tell me what to do. You're not my real father." The boy crossed his arms and glared at the warden.

That. That actually stung, but the warden didn't let on. He just wanted this day over with.

"Well, right now I'm the only thing keeping you out of juvie. And if you think you'll fare better with the boys in there than with a bunch of librarians, go right ahead."

It was a calculated bluff but it paid off. The boy huffed "fine" at him.

"Damn straight you will, young man." And the warden walked briskly out of the boy's cell without so much as a good night. He needed a goddamn scotch. He couldn't wait until these teen years were over. He would rather go back in time and do the terrible twos again, diapers and all.

Then, out of nowhere, it came to him and he stopped dead in his tracks.

Laddistch International had been in the newspaper last week. They had just been bought out by Metro Corp with much fanfare, announcing new research on what they had vaguely called "the power of flight" and "unprecedented advances".

And Metro Corp was Lord Scott's company. Bullshit that was a coincidence.


	8. Chapter 8

_Eh. Hi. My work is insanely stressful and I'm only barely able to slough through on any given day. Most days I can't manage a thought more coherent then "fire bright, tree pretty"._

_But I bring fanfic. Fanfic good._

_If you like fanfic, a review would make me happppppppyyyy in a sea of desolation and stress.  
><em>

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 8_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Megamind is ready to leave the nest and embark on a brilliant career in villainy, but can the warden handle letting him go? _

_Beta: Anyone who reads my other stories has probably noticed I can't properly use a comma to save my life. Their correct usage here is all due to Sharelle. _

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~ M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

"Did you look at those brochures I left you?" the warden asked, trying to sound casual as he examined the latest batch of schematics and incomprehensible notes suspended from the ceiling.

The boy snorted. "Ooh yeah. Cambridge. Oxford. Nice to know you want to ship me off to the other side of this godf-orsaken planet."

The warden let out a heavy sigh and the papers fluttered in front of him. "That's not why I—"

"Yes, yes, I know. You want me to go to college. Settle down, become another mindless drone." The boy mocked him with an exaggerated tone of voice that the warden had come to expect but still hated. "No thank you. I have several highly promising ideas for evil inventions that would be a far better use of my time."

God, not this again. Jesus. No wonder he was going grey. He fought the urge to hide behind his usual gruffness. He needed to make sure the boy was going to be taken care of. If that meant talking, even though he didn't want to…..

"You need to stop wasting your time on these ludicrous plots and get serious about your future, young man. Go someplace where they recognize your talents and make you do something productive with them," the warden lectured.

"I already recognize I'm a genius. And do you think they have anything to teach me I can't learn on my own? Did you know the Dean at Oxford still thinks it's possible that the electron cloud of the atom doesn't influence alpha particle scattering?" The boy scoffed.

The warden had no idea what the young man was talking about but it was clear from his tone that the kid found that position deeply stupid. He tried again, sitting on the boy's bed.

"Cambridge has the best physics program on the globe. You already passed on the robotics program at MIT."

"Because their idea of cutting edge is things I drew out when I was nine," the young man rolled his green eyes and crossed his arms.

"Well, not everyone has your mind," the warden stated plainly.

"No, they don't." The blue boy gave a comically evil smirk. Ugh. The warden hated it when the boy was smug like this, but lately this was all he was like. His hopes that the boy would grow out of this phase were dimming.

God, could he still even call him a boy? He was almost a man, at least in the eyes of the law. He seemed to have grown as tall as he would, though it was hard to tell. At least he looked proportional in his own way. His head was still far larger than his body and he was still skinny as a rail, but he was no longer a gangly teen.

"Look, we missed the application deadlines for this fall but we could always apply for mid-year." The warden gave it another go.

"I don't know how to make this any clearer to you. I. AM. NOT. GOING. TO. COLLEGE. I am destined for a highly fulfilling career in villainy. And there is nothing anyone can do to stop me." He tented his fingertips against each other diabolically. "Not you, and certainly not Metro Mahn."

"Oh Lord, please don't start in on Wayne Scott again." The warden sighed and rubbed his temples. It was always like this. "You need to let it go, Blue."

"I don't respond to that name any more." The boy's voice was cool.

"Ok, Megamind. You need to be able to let it go."

"What are you even doing here? Shouldn't you be giving me a lecture peppered with clichés about a won-der-ful world or something? Where is my usual speech about how humans are really great and not a bunch of savages?"

"I don't have anything prepared but I'm sure I can come up with something if you'd like," the warden snapped back.

Megamind rolled his eyes. "I don't need you to look after me anymore. Really."

"Do you expect me to just sit with this?" the warden exploded at the boy. "Pat you on the back and wish you luck? This is stupid and illegal. And dangerous!"

"I don't expect anything from you! It's not your life. It's my destiny. Not. Yours. And I know what I'm doing!"

"Oh yeah, you know everything at age 17."

"Well I do have a mega mind," the boy sniped. "And I'm not a child anymore."

"Fine. Where is Minion?" The warden crossed his arms as he changed the subject.

Blue shrugged at him but the warden was pretty sure it was an act. He decided to stare pointedly at the boy until he gave him an answer.

"I don't know," the boy said with an air of smooth detachment. Yes. That was most definitely a lie.

"Don't think I haven't noticed that he doesn't come back here most nights."

"He isn't restricted by stupid laws saying that he's a minor," the boy replied bitterly.

"Look, I know you two are raring to get out of here. You've made that pretty clear. But you've got to think practically. Where are you going to live? What are you going to do for money?" The warden tried to ask him sensible questions. It was the middle of December in Michigan, for crying out loud. The boy had never been good with cold.

"I have several highly promising ideas for evil inventions," the boy repeated slowly as thought the warden was a moron.

"That's not an answer."

"I know." The boy crossed his arms and stared him down.

The warden was unsurprised. He used to being shut out. Had the boy actually answered any of his questions he may have died of shock. But still, what the hell was he supposed to do? He didn't have a any way to change the boy's mind. Talking to him wasn't accomplishing anything.

"As soon as Minion gets back I want him in my office."

"You're not going to be able to get him to talk me out of this," the boy scoffed.

"I know," the warden replied. _I just want to make sure someone is going to be there to take care of you_, he thought.

The warden checked his watch. Damn, he had to get on the phone for that 3:00 conference call. He stood up.

"Are you at least going to stay for the day on Saturday? We could do something for your birthday." The warden felt like he needed to mention it before he could leave.

"It's not my birthday."

"You know what I mean," the warden replied quietly. "We always do your birthday on the 17th. Counting back from crash landing day. Whatever you want to call it."

And if it was the last one he might get he wanted to make it good. Get the boy something practical since he refused to think of these things himself.

"Minion and I have plans," the boy replied. "Evil, evil plans."

"Can evil plans wait 24 hours?" the warden asked with exasperation. The boy shrugged. Apparently that was the best he could get before he had to go.

~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the call he tried to throw himself into his prolific backlog of email. But as usual his focus was terrible. Which was how he had gotten the backlog to begin with.

God, what would he do if the boy wasn't here? If he couldn't just pop down to chat and check on him? If he had no way of knowing if the kid was dead in a ditch somewhere….

Someone knocked on his office door, and Leroy popped his head in.

"You still want the fish boss?"

The warden nodded at the familiar guard, who opened the door the rest of the way to usher in a fish in a thin, metal body that made him look like a robot. Should he have the suit sit down? Did it matter? Minion was standing right in front of his desk. The warden took a moment to collect his thoughts.

"Look, Minion, I'm going to lay this out plain. Can you talk him out of this supervillian bullshit?"

"Sir believes that being a supervillian is his destiny," Minion replied, fins fluttering with what the warden guessed to be nerves.

"I'm well aware of that. What do you think?" The warden let his frustration show just a bit around the edges. And Minion just looked from side to side as the warden put him on the spot.

"My only job is to take care of him. If this is what he wants to do…." The fish didn't finish that sentence.

"So you think this is total crap too." The warden crossed his arms and held Minion's gaze.

"Sir is very intelligent. He thinks this is his destiny. And I have no doubt he will make a magnificent villain." The fish sounded oddly proud and the warden threw his hands up in the air.

"So you're just going to enable this ridiculous feud with Wayne Scott? Minion, that boy has superpowers. We both know Blue is a certified genius, but he could get seriously hurt if this escalates. Have you thought about that?" the warden pressed him, desperate for answers.

Minion started to shake his head and swim in agitated circles.

"Sir said that you would try to trick me, but I won't help you hold him back. My sole job in life is to look after him."

"Jesus, Minion, would it kill you to have an opinion of your own?" The warden was aware he was taking his frustration out on the fish, but someone needed to hear this and it was clear the boy wasn't interested in listening. "Are you his best friend or his servant?"

"Both!"

"Well, one day you're gonna find that those two things don't mix. I hope you remember that you had plenty of chances to stop this craziness before it's too late."

They glared at each other. He had never been best friends with the fish, but the warden had always tried to respect the special bond that he shared with the boy. Now he couldn't help but feel like Megamind had chosen Minion over him, and it stung. The silence stretched out across the desk, long and awkward. Finally, the warden got up from behind the desk and stood in front of the mechanical suit.

"Just…. promise me that you're going to look after him," the warden demanded, his voice shakier then he expected and his face inches away from Minion's glass.

"His parents sent me to take care of him. I will always take care of him," Minion replied, fins still fluttering as he stared back.

"You better. He's going to need someone out there."

~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boy had liked the cake. But then again, he always liked cake. Or any kind of sweets, really. The warden remembered the first time he had bought the kid a birthday cake. He was three and he had tried his damndest to eat the entire thing. Then he had bounced off the walls for hours. _Memories_, the warden scoffed to himself.

Finally, he handed the boy his gift. Megamind tore the paper off the box and opened it eagerly. God, he was still such a child sometimes. Then he made a face when he saw the contents.

"It's a… backpack?"

"It's um, got lots of useful stuff in it. And there's some money in the side pocket." The boy unpacked the bag and looked baffled, removing the empty water bottle and the solar blankets and the waterproof matches. He was still pulling things out of the bag in confusion.

"You got me a sweatshirt?" Megamind cocked his head in confusion.

"Well, it's a pullover. It doesn't actually pull over, it's got a zipper up the front so it should fit over your head. I guessed at the size, but I figured too big was better than too small."

The boy still looked utterly bewildered.

"It's…" the warden trailed off. "And there are boots. So your feet don't get cold."

He sounded so stupid. And the look the boy was giving him made it clear he thought this was stupid, too. It was a stupid present. What do you give your kid when they are about to embark on a career as a supervillian? The backpack had seemed so useful and practical when he thought of it, now it just seemed strange.

God, he couldn't do anything right. But then if he had done things right, then the boy would stay. He wouldn't be ready to pretty much disappear into the night.

Finally the boy pulled the last thing from the bag.

"A cell phone?"

"Call me once and while, will you?" The warden tried to sound nonchalant, but he prayed that the boy would actually call.

"I'm not interested in having a leash," Blue responded bitterly. "Did you put tracking software on this? Because you know I'll just remove it."

The warden sighed. This was going all wrong. Why did it seem like everything he did and said was wrong?

"I wouldn't know how to put tracking anything on there," the warden responded gruffly. "It's just common sense, so you can check in." _So I can know that you're not dead in a ditch somewhere_, he thought.

Something that looked like guilt momentarily flickered in the boy's eyes.

"Oh." Megamind seemed to be looking anywhere but at him.

"There's nothing I can say to change your mind, is there?" The warden made his voice sound as gruff as possible. He had to stand firm on this or he would crumble. The boy just shook his head in an irritated fashion.

"No. Is that all?"

Was that all? What should he do now? He wanted to wrap the boy - his boy - in his arms and refuse to let him go. He wanted to ground him for the rest of his life. He would give anything to stop him from making this mistake.

He wanted to beg – pride be damned if it meant he would stay. He just wanted the boy home and safe and outside of the reach of government agents and super-powered assholes.

But if he started he might not be able to stop. And the boy wasn't his. Not really. Even if he had changed his diapers and fed and clothed him, even if he held him when cried and played make-believe with him for hours. He wasn't his. Even if he had an envelope of paperwork in the bottom of a file drawer to the contrary.

He was his own man now.

And the warden would not – could not – cry in front of him. He never had before; he wasn't going to start now.

Now he realized that the pause had been too long and the boy was staring at him. "When are you leaving?" he asked quietly.

"Morning." The boy responded in a dispassionate tone, studying him.

Well. That was. Yeah.

The warden moved closer and awkwardly patted him on the back. The boy made an irritated sound, clearly seeing the touch as an imposition, but allowed it.

"Good night, then," the warden said awkwardly and the boy nodded. Then he left the cell before he could embarrass himself further.

He went up to his office, where he strongly considered a scotch before deciding it would just be too damn much work to get the glass and pour the drink. Instead he slumped glumly on the couch and fought with himself. At some point it started to get dark outside and he couldn't even manage the energy to get up to turn on a light.

Then there was a knock on the door. He ignored it. Then another.

"I know you're in there boss," he heard Leroy say from the other side. The warden sighed. What was he going to do, hide out here all night? He would need to interact with other people at some point. He got up off the couch and opened the door.

The chubby black guard let himself into the office like it was an everyday occurrence. If he noticed the fact that the lighting was dim he didn't remark on it. He grabbed one of the chairs in front of the warden's desk and turned it around to cross his arms and lean against the top of the back as he sat.

"Stopped by and saw the kid. He's packing somethin' crazy. Seems to be turnin' all his stuff into those funny blue cubes and putting them in a backpack," Leroy said, watching the warden carefully.

The warden sat back down on the sofa. "I don't know what else to do. He's gonna end up a criminal. I raised him around criminals and he's gonna turn out to be some crazy supervillian." He put his head down into his hands and stared at the floor.

There was a moment of silence but it wasn't awkward. Just a silence. Which made sense. Overall, Leroy was a man of few words. Finally the older man broke the silence.

"I remember your first day here. You came in all young and tough. Dressed sharp, too. Made it clear that you ran a tight ship and wouldn't tolerate foolishness. I've been workin' in prisons for damn near 30 years and I never saw anyone with as much bravado and the skill to back it up. Then when Madge left it was like you got locked down hard on everyone, including yourself. Until that kid showed up. So you don't need to tell me what he means to you. I seen it firsthand."

Leroy laced his fingers together in the pause. "But every kid needs to leave the nest at some time, boss. And it don't matter where that boy goes, you'll always be his poppa. That's fact."

The warden silently nodded.

"Plus, you and I know criminals. And that boy is no criminal. Needing time to figure himself out maybe, but not a villain." Leroy spoke plain, but he spoke true.

"I just keep hoping he will figure it out soon," the warden replied glumly.

"Boy's gonna take as long as he'll take, boss, especially a stubborn one like that one. A piece of advice?" Leroy asked, for the first time looking uncomfortable. The warden watched him and nodded.

"You don't wanna be haunted by what could have been." Leroy seemed to be looking past him now. "If you've got somethin' you wanna say to that boy, go say it. Maybe he can take it with him wherever he's gonna go."

Then Leroy stood up, and patted him on the shoulder before leaving the warden alone again with his thoughts.

Could he really hide out here, or god-forbid go home, knowing this was the boy's last night here? He got up and paced for half an hour before realizing that the answer was no.

He didn't know if there was anything he could do or say to change the boy's mind before sunup, but at least he could spend what little time he had left with him.

The warden walked quickly back down to the familiar cell. He could spend the night with him, like he had when he was a boy, eating leftover cake. And maybe they could go up to his office and watch TV or something. Then the kid might still leave, but at least he would know he had been loved.

Maybe that wasn't good enough, but it was all the warden had to give. And at least he might be able to make some kind of peace with himself in that.

He turned the corner at a clip and instantly knew it was all wrong.

The cell door was hanging open, but even in the dark he could see that it was empty. The fluttering paper cloud was gone, as were his computers and all his clothes. He had left a few of his oldest notebooks and some toys he hadn't touched in years behind, but otherwise the cell was stripped of anything that would show it had ever been his.

The warden gripped the doorway. This was actually happening. Had actually happened. Damn.

Eighteen years to the day that the boy had crash landed at his prison, the young man had walked out the door to find his destiny. At least he took the backpack. Though he had left behind a cell phone on the crisply made bed.


	9. Chapter 9

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 9_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Megamind ramps up his efforts at villainy and the warden tries a few last ditch solutions to try to keep things from getting out of hand. _

_Beta: Sharelle. She's made of sunshine and rainbows. And MAGIC. _

_Author's Note: I'd like to thank every prison movie cliché for making this chapter possible. _

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~ M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

The first time Megamind came back to the prison, the warden was not surprised, though it was odd to see him hauled in by a flying Wayne Scott of all people. He knew what the boy was planning to do with his life, but it was another thing entirely to see him doing it. Not that the warden hadn't thought and worried about him every day, not that he hadn't hoped it was him every time there was a call or watched the mail hawkishly for a postcard or letter. But he hadn't actually set eyes on his boy since celebrating his birthday over a year ago.

And now he had no idea exactly who he was looking at.

The man in front of him was dressed in some kind of black spandex catsuit with bold blue lightning bolts all over. And a cape. Yep. The kid actually had a goddamn cape. Then there was this spiked collar, high and dramatic. He was still skinny as a rail, but the clothing made it harder to notice that unless you were looking for it. Somehow it made his neck look even longer, his shoulders broader.

It made him look dangerous.

The warden could see it in the way he moved too, with a certain practiced arrogance he had never seen from the boy before. He had rushed down to intake to see his boy and instead there was this stranger. He just stared.

However when Blue saw him in the doorway and said, "Hello Warden" with a familiar smile… It was like a punch to the gut.

There was no doubt that his little boy was all grown up. And the warden had no idea what to do with him.

Metro Man had brought him here after something involving a robot running around downtown, shooting lasers out of its eyes. The superhero squashed it in five seconds flat, grabbed the boy, then literally just dropped him here before flying off.

Was holding him here even legal? He hadn't been convicted of a crime. The warden left the intake area without a word, pacing while watching the boy from the other side of the two-way glass that looked into the room. The warden saw something that looked like his familiar boy emerge once the layers of spikes and leather were stripped away. But what the hell was he supposed to do now?

_Screw it_, he thought, mentally throwing his hands in the air. He may as well just keep him here until there was some kind of trial. When the Metro City DA wanted to charge the boy with something, at least they would know where to find him. At least he would be out of trouble.

Though there was the issue of where to put him. His old cell had sat untouched for months - until one random Tuesday, when the warden went down there with an empty file box and crammed it full of what remained of his boy's childhood. The cell was currently occupied by a man convicted of cheating creatively on his taxes.

And the warden had concerns about keeping him here in any capacity. He hadn't been able to actually keep the boy locked in a cell since he was in diapers. Megamind would be out of the building in twenty minutes if they put him in one of those.

He could put him in the solitary confinement wing, but even that was no guarantee. It was highly unpleasant down in solitary, where the thick cell doors had nickel-sized holes punched in them instead of bars. He would only be taken out of lockup for an hour a day for supervised yard time, otherwise he would live his entire life in a 7"x 7" room. The idea of putting his little boy down there broke his heart.

But, he reckoned, if he wanted to keep Megamind here until this mess was figured out, it was the best he could do.

He looked at the kid again, a long look with furrowed brow. They had taken off the collar and cape, the boots and gloves. There was just the matter of the tight black suit.

The flash happened as one of the guards reached for the zipper. The warden didn't remember falling over, but suddenly he was on the ground and the world seemed shaky and voices echoed around him. He saw a streak of something blue and black, a swirl of fabric that seemed to hover over him for a second then was gone.

He tried to ask the guards streaming into the room what the hell happened, but his voice echoed in his ears. It didn't help when alarms began blaring. He was still shaky when someone helped him up to a sitting position, but it was clear that their prisoner was gone. It had all happened so fast.

Afterwards he must have reviewed the security camera footage at least hundred times. He would see the moment where the boy palmed something from a hidden flap in his costume. He would see the flick of his wrist and the way he covered his ears before the screen became a blinding white. He would see the boy quickly shove the cape back on, literally hop into his boots, then grab his gloves and rush towards the door on the other side of the glass.

There was no footage of the warden or the viewing room in which he had been. Still security was able to piece together a flow of footage from cameras all over the rest of prison. They tracked the boy as he expertly zigged and zagged through the building, knowing exactly when to pause and wait for a guard to turn his back or switch position. He made it out of the building in 4 minutes and 42 seconds without interacting with a single staff member until he raced out the front entrance. The guard at the tower helpfully hit the alarm which automatically shuttered the gate. However the camera at the entrance had caught some kind of tiny machine flying to meet him, lifting him over the fence and out of frame.

The warden had security loop the footage together into one tape. He rewound it and watched it again and again. He had no idea if his little boy was in there anymore.

~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~

The second time Megamind was brought in the warden had him immediately frisked – hard – and a variety of creative little things turned up in a half dozen covert places. The boy was soon put in a standard orange jumpsuit and black shoes. Given what had happened the last time, the warden wasn't taking any chances. He personally accompanied a full battery of 4 guards as they escorted the boy to the solitary confinement wing.

After leaving him to stew down there for a day, the warden had the boy taken into one of the visiting rooms. Remarkably, the boy's face lit up like a Christmas tree as soon as he walked in.

"Hello, Warden!" he said excitedly. The warden just stared at him.

The boy was in prison. How could he be in such good spirits? Then again, this prison was his home. Even in confinement there must be a sense of that familiarity somewhere among the bad food and institutional jumpsuits.

The warden took a seat and said the first thing that popped into his mind.

"So…. all the little ant-like robots. Must have taken a while to build. All those tiny legs." Seemed as good a place as any to start since he had no idea how to make small talk with a supervillian.

Wait, when did he start thinking of him as a supervillian first and his little Blue second? Christ, this was getting all messed up.

But Megamind actually looked pleased. "Warden, are you finally coming to appreciate my life's work?" And there was that eager look, the look he used to get as a child when he was burning to show off a new drawing. The warden tried not to let the familiarity get the best of him.

"No. I just want to make sure that you know that there will be no shenanigans like last time. I reviewed those security tapes and I know exactly how you palmed that - whatever that was. All the guard rotations and cameras have been changed from what you grew up on. I've got my eye on you, kiddo." The warden crossed his arms and gave the boy a firm stare.

That only seemed to make the boy smile devilishly. "Keep watching. You might see something interesting."

"Well. You know what they say about doing the same over and over again expecting different results."

The boy merely raised an eyebrow at him now.

"You don't think I'm insane," he said frankly. "If you did, you wouldn't be here talking to me."

The warden shrugged. "Got me there."

Then they just stared at each other.

"So, how's Minion?" the warden finally asked. The boy didn't have time to respond before alarms started sounding everywhere. The warden shot him an angry look.

"What did you do?" he demanded.

"Nothing!" the boy replied incredulously. "I was right here!"

The warden couldn't stop the sneer from spreading across his face. "Yeah right."

He stormed out of the visitation room and hastily ordered the pair of guards to escort the prisoner back to his cell. He headed straight for the nearest checkpoint and quickly dialed the number for security.

"All hell broke loose in the cafeteria boss," the new head of security informed him. "Seems like there was a grudge between two guys that erupted in a fistfight that turned into a food fight. I've put the caf on lockdown, probably will take a few hours to get sorted."

And none of the guys involved had any connection to Megamind. The warden rubbed his temples. He should apologize to the kid for biting his head off. It didn't seem like this had anything to do with him.

He headed down to the solitary confinement wing once he was confident the situation was under control. But when he turned a corner he found a pair of guards laying unconscious on the floor, hands tied behind their backs with what looked like strips of a prison uniform. This was bad.

And with most of security dispatched to the cafeteria situation, it took forever to even get someone to come down to solitary and start a reasonable search. A search that, of course, turned up nothing, except an empty cell where Megamind should have been.

Even the cameras didn't detect his presence anywhere in the prison, simply him being escorted by the guards down one hall and then not turning the corner to show up on the next camera. Which was good because that means he didn't get out. The warden instructed his security team to review the footage again, frame by frame if necessary.

The kid must be here somewhere. He ordered the whole facility put on lockdown.

He went back down to solitary and paced the floor. There must be something here. He was missing it. What was it? He checked the floor grates, only to find them firmly bolted to the ground. He checked the ventilation shafts, which were also locked. What the hell? Where the hell was he?

He went back up to look at the footage. There the kid was being taken down the hall. Then on the next cam, nothing. Well, nothing but the corner of a laundry cart in the bottom of one frame.

Oh hell.

"Back that footage up," he ordered.

Then he watched it again, keeping an eye on the cart. Sure enough, about two minutes after the guards took Megamind out of camera range, the cart wiggled. The warden sighed. They spent the next twenty minutes piecing together footage of the cart as it was picked up from the corner of solitary and wheeled into the loading dock, where the laundry service loaded it on their truck.

It got even worse when the warden called the laundry service. Oddly enough, one of their trucks had some trouble after picking up today's delivery. The back door had popped open and laundry was strewn all over a highway. It seemed like it had just opened of its own accord. The warden resisted the urge to slam his forehead against the desk.

Escape via the prison laundry? Jesus, could this get any more cliché? He rubbed his temples. There was going to be hell to pay and paperwork until the end of time.

And to top it off, the next day there was a message on his machine from Agent Carson. The warden did the only thing he could think of. He called and begged the man for more time. Carson said he couldn't make any promises. The warden's only consolation was that the boy wouldn't be easy for them to hold on to, even if they did manage to catch him.

~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~

The third time Metro Man brought him to the prison, the blue man was damn near unconscious. The warden nearly had a heart attack when he saw his boy limp in his adversary's arms and rushed to meet Wayne with feet that seemed to be moving altogether too slow given the circumstances.

There had been some kind of explosion with one of his inventions and Megamind looked like a walking bruise. The warden rushed him directly to the medical ward. He seemed to have trouble focusing his eyes or even speaking coherently. A few x-rays later Dr. Patari proclaimed him fine except for a concussion and some broken ribs. None of which were serious enough to warrant a stay in the medical bay, especially with the boy's history of escape.

So, still groggy and exhausted, he was transferred into the solitary confinement wing. The warden ordered hourly check-ins and slept on the couch in his office for the first time in years, too nervous to leave the building in case he took a turn for the worse. But the boy seemed to sleep it off and while he was stiff moving around in the morning, he was in generally good spirits, if a bit quieter than usual. He also showed no signs of trying to escape as days turned into weeks.

The warden couldn't deny watching him like a hawk, sure that his recent spate of good behavior was just a cover for something worse. But as time passed he let his guard down. One of the guards who had known Megamind since he was small asked if it was ok to give him a poster or something for his cell, to cheer him up when his ribs were still mending. The warden hadn't seen the harm.

And he started going to talk to the boy each day during his yard time.

Megamind usually seemed disinterested but the warden felt like he had to say something. Something that would make up for all the lost opportunities and things he hadn't said before.

He tried being as blunt as he could.

"What are you doin', Blue? You don't have to do this. You're too smart for this."

Megamind simply looked quietly at him and gave him an arrogant smile. "I think am exactly the right amount of smart for this, Warden."

"He has superpowers. Look, kid, he could kill you if you're not careful."

"Not if I destroy him first," Megamind replied with a cheerful, almost delusional, calm.

The next day the warden tried a different tactic.

"I'm just trying to look out for you. So far it's fine because they brought you back here, but if this escalates, you could be looking at federal charges."

The boy rolled his eyes. "I don't care about that," he said, waving his hand dismissively, then wincing as the motion pulled on sore ribs that seemed to be healing unnaturally slow, especially for him.

"Look, I'm trying to help you. But if they put you into the federal prison system then I can't protect you anymore," the warden appealed. He couldn't deny hoping that there would be some part of the boy that appreciated everything he did for him.

"My dear warden, do you think there is any prison that could hold me? That I couldn't escape from if I truly wanted to?" His mouth actually turned up into a smirk. "Perhaps escape from a federal penitentiary would be an interesting challenge."

A few days later the warden ended up losing his temper.

"Look, I know Wayne Scott was a little shit to you when you were kids but it was a decade ago. Get over it. You're not making him pay. You're only hurting yourself!" He pointed a finger right in the boy's face.

"Please, this isn't about anything as petty as vengeance," Megamind scoffed.

"Then what's it about? It – ugh – all of this doesn't even make any sense!" The warden threw up his hands but the boy just stared at him calmly.

"It makes perfect sense to me." The boy furrowed his brow and paced in a circle as he talked. "Two aliens land on this planet from a broken star system. One looks perfectly human and lands in the lap of lux-you-ry, while the other sticks out like a sore thumb and has been wreaking havoc since he was a toddler. One to be the hero and one to be a villain."

"Life doesn't work like that Megamind," the warden said with an exasperated sigh.

"Mine does."

The warden stewed on that for most of the afternoon, until a panicked guard showed up in his office to explain that the boy's cell was empty. They rushed down to find that the cell was indeed still locked but there was no one inside. What the hell? Did he invent a teleportation machine?

Then he noticed something odd. There was a poster of some random local news reporter hanging on the wall. He remembered it now. He tore the poster down and damned if there wasn't a small hole in the wall behind it.

He called for a flashlight and shone it down the tunnel. It was far too small for the warden to get into, but even with his large head Megamind still had such a tiny frame…..

~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~

The warden wasn't on the grounds the fourth time Megamind came back to jail. He was actually in Chicago for a conference. But as soon as he got the call, he jumped into his car and immediately sped home. He pulled into the parking lot just in time to see what looked like a swarm of something land on the prison roof and cause a small explosion.

The guards informed him that Megamind had been carried out on a fleet of little metal robots with sparking electrical domes. He had missed the boy but arrived just in time to survey the wreckage. Concrete dust and mangled metal filled the space that had once been his solitary confinement cell. Thankfully, the damage was limited to that one particular cell and none of the other prisoners or staff had been harmed.

He knelt and frowned as he fingered an orange scrap of cloth that was probably all that was left of the boy's uniform.

"Maybe he was just born evil, you ever think of that?" one of the guards offered, interrupting his internal reverie.

"Excuse me?" the warden replied defensively. More defensively then he probably should have given the pile of wreckage in which they both stood. Who was this guy? Jake something?

The man blundered on obliviously. "You know, sent here from an alien planet to enslave the human race. I don't buy that 'destroyed homeworld' story. He could have a full invasion fleet stationed in low orbit, just waiting for him to make all of us into mindless slaves." The guard was chuckling to himself until he saw the look his boss was giving him.

If looks could kill, then the glare the warden was giving this man right now would have melted the flesh from his face.

The guard made a hasty exit from the wreckage and the warden sighed. There was nothing of the boy here anymore.

It hadn't been the same since Leroy had retired. The warden mentally ran through a roster of his staff. Most of them had never known the boy as anything other than Megamind, Public Nuisance or, at best, Megamind, Surly Blue Teenager.

They hadn't been the guards in the prison yard at midnight searching for the child's lost binky, or the ones who called him at home when the boy awoke crying from a nightmare. They hadn't watched him play chess with Wally Jenkins all afternoon or had to remind him several times to put down his book before he missed dinner.

They didn't know him. Then again, most of the time the warden didn't feel like he knew him either.

~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~

The fifth time set the record for Megamind's shortest incarceration. Metro Man had flown off and the warden had arrived just as the guards were moving to take his personal effects. However the boy quickly ducked and reached for something hidden inside the heel of his left boot. Before the warden knew it he was looking down the barrel of something that looked a lot like a miniature version of the boy's old dehydration gun.

"Ok, calm down, Blue. Let's talk about this like-"

He saw the bolt as it was fired and then a flash of blueish light. Then he was simply sitting on the floor feeling moist. One of the guards was holding an empty glass over his head.

Shit. He couldn't believe the boy had shot him.

~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~

The seventh time, the warden was mostly just irritated at the timing. He hated leaving the facility while the boy was there. Not only because of the increased likelihood of escape, but because it just seemed a waste. He already barely got to see him. Now he had to give up what little time he had.

But tonight he had a prior engagement. He had gone through hell and high water to secure a ticket to the Metro Corp Gives Back Charity Ball. He milled around and nibbled on hors d'oeuvres served by waiters in crisp tuxes that probably cost more than his cheap rental. But he wasn't there to make the fashion pages. He was a man on a mission, and his mission was currently enacting a similar dance: standing across the room making polite chitchat and trying to snag a beef carpaccio.

Then there was a lull as the band started up a lively tune and the warden saw his moment. He took it and approached the other man.

"How's the consulting business going?" he said abruptly, catching his target by surprise as the other man chewed and quickly swallowed.

"Well. Thank you for asking, Mr….?"

"Woodridge. James Woodridge. I was sorry to hear about the passing of your father. He was a great man," the warden said as he shook Wayne Scott's thick hand.

"Thank you," Wayne said, studying him. "You look familiar. Have we met before?"

"No, but we have a mutual acquaintance. Someone you go back a way with," the warden said with a practiced shrug designed to put the larger man at ease.

"Are you Austin's dad? Because I haven't seen him since prep school…" Wayne said as he racked him brain.

"Don't know an Austin, but I do know someone who goes by the name Megamind," the warden said with a cool smile. "But he went by Blue when you were busy chucking dodgeballs at his head." Wayne's face only flickered for a second to register surprise.

"You must be mistaken. I have never met our fair city's resident supervillian," he replied with a well-rehearsed smile.

"You can cut the crap, Wayne. I know you're Metro Man. I don't know how the hell the rest of the city doesn't know just by looking at your hair, but that is the situation we find ourselves in."

Wayne looked from side to side to see if anyone was close enough to hear that. Then he looked at him warily and abruptly grabbed the warden's shoulder.

And that was when things got really weird. They were still at the ball, surrounded by whirling dancing people. But it was like the partygoers were moving so slowly they were barely moving at all, yet the warden and Wayne Scott seemed unaffected.

What the hell? The warden's heart raced and he instinctively tried to pull back from the man's grip. But this was Metro Man, possibly the strongest man on the planet, and the warden wasn't going anywhere.

"What do you want, Warden Woodridge?" Wayne asked in a hushed tone, making the warden suddenly very aware that he was threatening a man who could crush him in the palm of his hand. Literally. He steeled himself before answering.

"I want you to do what you're already doing. When Megamind does something destructive, you stop him. No extra work required. But I want you to make one quick phone call to that effect and then we can forget we ever had this conversation."

"You want me to make a phone call? Right now?"

"Not this minute but soon. Tonight."

"Who the hell am I calling?"

"Just some government officials. You tell them you have Megamind under control and to stay out your business."

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Because you know this supervillian crap is as much your damn fault as his," the warden hissed. Wayne blinked. The warden continued.

"I cut a deal with them years ago. Now it's your turn to make sure nothing bad happens to him. Well, nothing worse then what you've already done."

"Look, Warden, I feel bad about what happened when we were kids. I do. But maybe he would be better off in a prison that could actually keep him inside," Wayne said pointedly.

"Please, we're not talking about some federal Supermax here. Do you think he's gonna be any 'better off' in a secret lab somewhere being used for scientific testing? Is that the kind of justice you're looking to dish out as a superhero?" The warden flicked a simple white business card out of his breast pocket.

"If that's what these people do to aliens, then I don't want them anywhere near me either," Wayne muttered in reply.

The warden rolled his eyes. "Please. You pass. You're rich, you're powerful, and you look human. He doesn't have that."

Wayne looked down at the little white card the warden held in his outstretched hand.

"You're supposed to be the big hero here. Standing up for the helpless and all that. Call this man. Tell him S.W.O.R.D. needs to back the hell off because you have this situation under control."

"What situation? He's just going to keep coming at me. Maybe I don't want to spend the rest of my life babysitting his."

The two men glared at each other.

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to become a superhero. Great power and great responsibility and all." _And maybe this is karmic payback for you taking a crap on his childhood_, the warden thought as he held the man's gaze.

Slowly Wayne took the card from him and let go of his arm. The noise and flurry of the room returned as the two men simply stared at each other. Then the warden started to walk away.

"He's been like this for a decade. You ever… do you think there's any chance he's ever going to change?" Wayne called after him.

The warden just shrugged. He wasn't about to discuss his most ardent hopes and dreams with a near-stranger.

He left the party straightaway and drove straight home. The rented tux was placed back on its hanger, and he tried to sleep but found it impossible. Just before dawn he arrived at the prison and walked straight down to the odd little dome that had recently been constructed to house their most famous prisoner.

"Happy 24th birthday, kiddo," he whispered though the portal glass.

The boy didn't respond. He was fast asleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the tenth time Metro Man flew off, the predictable pattern was clearly established.

Though there had been one distinct difference this time. The boy had kidnapped a woman, a sassy reporter from Channel 8 who had behaved admirably during the whole ordeal. She was clearly shaken but the warden thought she held her own against the city's resident supervillian admirably.

The warden had particularly enjoyed the look in the boy's face as she insulted his taste in clothing and asked if she was tied down to a conveyor belt heading for a saw blade because he had a secret fetish for Saturday morning cartoons. Her voice shook but her snark was still enough to throw him completely off course in the middle of a sentence.

The whole situation had made for highly entertaining television before Metro Man had crashed the ceiling and cut today's evil plan short.

The other difference was that the prison was ready for him this time. The state had brought in a special psychologist to assess the frequent escape situation. She had reviewed every escape attempt, every piece of security tape about him, every prisoner and guard report. The warden had put on his best professional prison administrator act through numerous interviews and hadn't given up a damn thing about his relationship with the boy.

In her final report, she suggested that Megamind's problems lay in a failure to adjust properly into an adult role and that regression into a more childish stage would be beneficial. Her solution had been to paint the inside of the special secure cell and to station a permanent guard with specialized monitoring equipment.

The warden should have been appalled, even insulted, by the final paint job. But he wasn't. The woman who came up with it was clearly a complete moron. But hey, if the state was willing to pay for her time and the people to paint this ridiculous mural that was fine by him. He was getting a high tech monitoring station out of the deal and the heat sensors were particularly impressive, just in case the boy was hiding an untriggered explosive somewhere on his person.

And the moment when he showed the boy the inside of the cell for the first time? That was priceless.

The warden made sure he was the one to personally escort the boy down to the dome. Despite being defeated yet again, Megamind seemed in fairly high spirits after his exchange with his spunky hostage. Until the door to the special cell opened and he stepped inside.

Megamind's jaw literally dropped as he took in the sight. The warden did his best to keep the smirk off his own face. "Pretty ugly, eh?"

"Ugly…. ugly is an under-stat-e-ment." The boy spun in a circle, the appalled look still hitched on his expressive face, taking in the mural in all its bizarre glory. "Ugly may be the biggest under-stat-e-ment in the history of the universe."

The warden chuckled a bit to himself. "The cute little deer aren't making you feel less inclined towards mass destruction?"

"You can also add insipid and condescending to your list of adjectives that adequately describe how truly dreadful this room is." The warden watched through the portal window as Megamind got up closer to the walls to study them. "They could have at least gotten someone with a modicum of artistic talent. These happy little woodland creatures appear to have been given an overdose of a restricted class sedative," he mumbled.

The warden muffled a smile at that. "Sorry, artistic talent costs extra."

"Please tell me you did not suggest this." Megamind crossed his arms and turned to stare at him.

Again, the warden couldn't help but smile as he tapped the glass portal. "Nope. I had nothing to do with that. You can thank the taxpayers of Michigan for these fine improvements in your accommodations."

The boy shook his head one last time. "Whoever came up with this is clearly a complete moron."

"Hey, don't be so negative," the warden said, trying to hold in a laugh at the boys expense. "Happy thoughts make happy people you know."

They stared at each other for a beat and then the boy burst out laughing.

More than that, the boy laughed honestly in a full-throated belly laugh, not his practiced theatrical cackle. Then the warden let out a legitimate chuckle and pretty soon they were both cracking up while the little mural deer watched with their vacant and overly cheerful eyes.

It was the best conversation he had with the boy in years. So maybe there was still hope for him yet. Of course, he managed to break out again within a week. He might have everyone else in this city fooled into thinking he was a bad scary villain. _But still_, the warden thought, _hope_.


	10. Chapter 10

_You know, there is so much I could say by way of introduction for this chapter... about how hard it was to write both emotionally and finally getting all the details nailed out... but no spoilers this time. Just read. _

_Also Katie, I can't reply to your review but sufficient to say it may be my favorite review I've ever received on anything I've ever posted here. I've read it a dozen times and thank you so much 3 3 3  
><em>

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 10_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. And the warden is pretty thrown when Megamind abruptly wants to talk to him about his life choices. _

_Beta : Into every generation, a Sharelle is born….. _

_Executive consultant on evil: Dal Niente. Oh yeah she was. _

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~<p>

"It's really nothing, Jim. Just his standard reaction to eating yogurt." Doctor Patari was scribbling some notes on a page, adding it to the thick file folder that contained Megamind's entire medical history.

The warden cocked his head at the man. "He ate yogurt?"

The boy never ate yogurt. It made him sick to his stomach. The warden remembered learning that lesson vividly when Blue was a baby. And that boy was well aware of the effect it had on his system. He remembered every goddamn thing.

"That's what he told me," the doctor replied nonchalantly.

"And you don't think he's faking it? As part of another elaborate escape attempt?"

"His symptoms match up." The doctor shrugged, clearly less interested in the mysteries of supervillian food allergies than the warden.

"Why the hell would he eat yogurt?" The warden was still baffled.

"That you'll have to ask him. I'm going to discharge him back to solitary right after I see this guy with a broken toe." The doctor gestured towards the other patient across the ward, chained to the bed.

The warden furrowed his brow for a moment, and then looked across the medical bay to where the boy lay waiting. Megamind was chained down to a gurney, looking pale and vaguely cranky, but mostly just bored.

Something had been weird with him all week. He had been quiet and more sullen than usual. The warden had chalked it up to the failure of his latest evil plot, which had involved some damn thing that looked like a cross between a gyroscope and a hamster wheel, from which he had dangled Miss Ritchie over the edge of the dam.

Talking to him was even harder when he was in one of those moods, so the warden had been giving him a wide berth. He would probably pull an escape in the next few days anyway. Then he would be back in a few weeks, maybe a few months depending on what he had up his sleeve, and would hopefully be in a better mood.

But that didn't explain the stunt with the yogurt. After a moment of staring and thinking, the warden approached him.

"What's the game this time?" the warden asked, putting his hands on his hips and staring down at the boy.

Megamind looked at him for a beat, as though he had been interrupted in the middle of thinking something difficult. Finally he spoke in an uncharacteristically slow drawl.

"I wanted to talk to you."

The warden narrowed his eyes skeptically. "Well I'm here. What do you want?"

"I… I've just been thinking. A lot. I do that sometimes." Megamind spoke with an air of casualness, but the warden noticed that his hands were fidgeting quite a bit.

"And what has so captured your imagination that you were willing to ruin your afternoon with a stomachache just to get my attention?" the warden asked, unable to stop watching the boy's twitching fingers.

"You actually. I've been thinking about you."

The warden raised an eyebrow. "Have you now?"

"About how easy things used to be. With you and me," Megamind said plainly, his green eyes searching the warden's for…. something. The warden didn't know what. He got a funny feeling in the pit of his stomach. He didn't know what the hell was going on here and that made him uncomfortable.

"What's prompting this sudden nostalgia tour, Megamind?"

"Just thinking. About what you always say about my future. And about how it is…. possible… that I haven't been entirely fair to the citizens of Metrocity," Megamind replied slowly as though he was carefully contemplating his answer.

"You think?" The warden rolled his eyes even though he knew it wasn't helping. He was used to egotistical bantering Megamind, or even quiet plotting Megamind. But the way Megamind spoke now was bringing up feelings he had become adept at burying down deep.

"I've been saying for years that being a supervillian is my destiny. But you never believed me, did you?"

"No." The warden responded cautiously. It was one thing for him to think these things but another to have the boy call him out on them. "But you made it pretty damn clear that there isn't much I can do about it," the warden added, his lips pursed in a sour grimace. He refused to make eye contact with the boy on principle.

"Fine, just take me back to my cell then," the boy responded coolly. "My mistake. I thought you might be the only one in this city who really knew me. Who might be willing to help." The warden felt his gruff exterior chipping away as he watched the wounded look spread across the boy's face.

"Help you do what, Blue? What do you want my help to do?" the warden sighed, exhausted from talking in circles.

"I want to stop being a supervillian," the boy declared.

The warden's eyes widened and he froze silently in place. This was really happening? Here in the medical bay? Right now, while he could see Patari setting a guy's toe out of the corner of his eye? His heart pounded loudly in his chest as he struggled to come up with a cogent response, finally settling on the only thing he could think of:

"Why me?"

"Are you kidding?" Megamind arched his eyebrows. "Because no one else on this planet would believe me."

Well, that was too true. He had been trying to make it clear for years now. He was never going to believe that his little Blue was evil. Misguided yes, but not malicious.

The warden looked at him for a moment then made a hasty decision.

He wasn't going to do this here. Not in front of the doctor and the other prisoners and god-knows-who might be listening on the other side of a curtain. He hastily grabbed his keys and unlocked the boy's cuffs from the bed. The boy sat up tentatively and the warden recuffed his hands in front of him.

"Come with me," he commanded, and the boy stood and walked beside the warden, out of the medical bay before Patari or anyone else could talk him out of what he was about to do. The warden grabbed a pair of guards at the security substation outside medical and had them act as escorts through the winding hallways of the prison.

This was a bad idea. This was a very bad idea. It was a blatant and deliberate violation of every security protocol regarding Megamind – the policies that the warden had designed himself to deal with Megamind. But none of that mattered now.

He knew exactly where he was heading and he knew it was wrong. But he couldn't do this in the bowels of the prison. If this was really happening, then he needed to bring the boy home.

The warden stopped before the last secure door leading to the administrative block. The guards looked at him in shock.

_Protocol can go fuck itself_, he thought. He wasn't going to stop with this opportunity in front of him. He used his badge to open the doors and lead the boy right into the admin area.

He walked him briskly through the field of cubicles and he heard the gasps and the thick silence. He did his best to ignore them, instead pulling the boy straight into his office.

"Wow," the boy muttered under his breath as he entered the room. "Exactly the same."

The warden ignored the comment and slammed the door behind the two of them. He pointed to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

"Sit."

The boy complied.

"Care to remove the cuffs?" Megamind asked, with a slight smirk that the warden knew better than to trust. Instead he stood in front of the boy, leaning against the desk and towering over the chair in which he sat.

"What are you playing at here?" the warden asked, crossing his arms defensively in front of himself. His heart wanted this so badly, but he didn't get this far in life by being a sentimental fool.

"I'm not playing," Megamind responded, arching his eyebrows. "I'm sick of riding on the same merry-go-round of fighting then prison then fighting then prison. I want to end this."

"You seriously expect me to believe that you want to go straight?" the warden demanded, watching the boy closely, wanting so desperately to believe that he was telling the truth.

"Well I've not been very successful at villainy thus far, so I'm exploring other options," the boy said haughtily, clearly wanting to hold onto a little bit of his pride.

"Other options? Blue, you torched most of those 'options' when you decided to make a run at Wayne Scott!"

The boy sighed melodramatically, rolling his entire head on his thin neck. "Look, we both know that I've made some mistakes – "

"Some mistakes? Some mistakes?" Something about that phrasing hit a sore spot within the warden. "Try nothing but mistakes! I cannot even begin to count up the property damage, the public harassment, endangering the public-"

"I know! Don't talk to me like I'm some stupid kid," Megamind snapped at the warden, then composed himself. "I know. But you're my only chance. You are literally the only one who still believes there is good in me." The boy looked at him with intense pleading eyes and once more fidgeted in the cuffs in front of him. The warden began rubbing his temples.

"Okay. Okay, okay," he repeated, mostly to himself, composing himself. He had wanted this, yes. Oh God how he had wanted it. But now that the moment was here, he had no idea what to say. What do you say or do when all your deepest dreams come true? He rubbed his face as he collected his thoughts.

"I don't know what you expect me to do, Blue, I really don't." he started. "I'm not a lawyer or a shrink or –"

"Look, I'm finally giving you your chance to say, 'I told you so'. God, I thought you would be loving this." Megamind sneered and then pouted. He attempted to cross his arms in front of himself, but was still in handcuffs, so he settled for wriggling humorously for a moment then letting out an exasperated huff.

"Okay, yes, I am a little," the warden said, letting himself show a tiny smile at the boy's flailing antics. "And I promise you, I will figure it out. It just might take me some time." The warden tried to sound reassuring, even though he really had no clue how he was going to save his boy from his own bad choices. However, this was his chance to try. "But I want you to lie down first."

That seemed to catch Megamind completely off guard. "What?"

"You," the warden said gruffly. "Lie down." After so many years of being Megamind's jailer, he wasn't sure if he remembered how to step back into the role of parent. But this was his chance to try that, too. He cleared his throat, and started over - trying to make his words less like an order and more like a request. "After that stunt with the yogurt I know you can't be feeling well," he clarified. "And nothing is going to be solved today. Now, I can take you back to medical if you like, or you can just lie here on the couch while I make some calls. But I want you to rest. Please."

Megamind looked like a deer in headlights. He shifted awkwardly in his seat, his eyes darting through the room, settling several times on the window. He looked uncertain. At least a dozen expressions flashed over his face at once. Whatever was going through his head right now, his discomfort was clear. The warden was oddly pleased at that. Good, maybe this experience would finally make the kid appreciate everything the warden was doing on his behalf. Which reminded him . . .

"And next time you need to see me, please just tell one of the guards. You don't have to make yourself sick just to speak to me, okay?" the warden added, feeling his face shift to an expression of compassionate concern.

Megamind didn't get up to move toward the couch. In fact, he didn't move at all. He simply sat there and studied the warden for what felt like a very long time. He scowled, almost angrily, for a moment. Then his body gave a little shake and the hostile look was gone. His face became calm and expressionless. He squared his shoulders, set his jaw, and looked directly at the warden, saying quietly, "I want you to know that I couldn't do this without you."

The boy got to his feet. For an awkward beat he simply stood motionless. Then, abruptly, he leaned against the warden, hands still cuffed in front of him as he nudged his large blue head onto the other man's shoulder.

The warden froze, his heartbeat suddenly thundering in his ears. It was one thing for him to offer to help the boy, it was another to bring him up into the administrative ward, but this . . . this was a violation of every prison regulation known to man.

Yet he couldn't deny how much he yearned to actually touch him, not just with handcuffs or to grab his arm and lead him down a hallway, but to actually wrap his arms around his boy.

So he did.

"Anytime," the warden said quietly. He inhaled a deep breath as he wrapped his arms around his little Blue.

Ten years of missing him since he had walked out the door on his eighteenth birthday, and now he held him for every time that he had wanted to but couldn't. As he clung to the boy, he also clung to the desperate hope that he could somehow find a way to fix this whole miserable, rotten mess, and all would be forgiven. His child needed him and the warden wasn't going to let him down this time. Not again.

On impulse, he raised one hand to the back of Megamind's head. The warden had meant for it to be affectionate - relaxing. He'd meant it as a way of reminding the boy of how things had been when Megamind was a baby. Instead, the gesture seemed to make the other man stiffen uncomfortably, so he stopped.

Then, it seemed, the moment was over. The two men pulled apart and were just left staring at each other.

It may not have been perfect, however the hug had helped to calm the warden's racing mind. The first thing he would do was call Franklin Jacobs again. The boy was going to need a lawyer. Keeping him here had never been legal in the first place and it was time someone saw to that. If there was anyone who could find a technicality or a loophole it would be that self-righteous sonofabitch. Next, he should find the boy a qualified therapist if he was going to-

He heard the vibration and felt a slight tremor the second before his office window shattered. He instinctively ducked, covering his head from the flying glass. The boy, however, ran straight to the window.

The warden stared in stunned silence, his arms still up, partially covering his head. Megamind turned deliberately to face him. He shrugged out of the handcuffs like they were nothing and they clattered noisily onto the floor.

Megamind stared at him for a moment, an odd, uncertain look on his face. Then, for the second time that day, he shook himself to banish the expression, replacing it with his well-rehearsed evil smirk. He tilted his chin upward importantly and planted his hands on his hips. "Thanks for bringing me up here," he said.

The warden felt his himself flush. He stood there motionless as his world started to crumble around him. The boy seemed encouraged by this. His smirk spread further as he regarded the dumbstruck look on the warden's face.

"You know, you just may be the most gullible drone in this entire city," Megamind mused. "And that's really saying something." He hopped up into the sill and glanced down.

The warden stared, stunned silent. Suddenly it felt too warm in here.

"Thought it was all just a cry for attention? Still thinking you can fix me with sanctimonious lectures and hugs?" Megamind gave a condescending little laugh. It didn't sound as well-honed as his usual evil cackle, but it still rang hollowly in the warden's ears.

For a moment, the manic glee disappeared from Megamind's face. He scowled as he clutched the window frame and glared down at the warden. "Maybe now you'll finally get the memo," he snarled. "I'm _evil_, daddy."

Then, just as quickly, the evil exuberance returned and Megamind wiggled his eyebrows gleefully from his perch.

"Oh, and thanks for the hug," he added as he pulled a familiar ring of keys out from behind him. He twirled them playfully on one finger. The warden's hands instantly went to his empty pocket.

Then the boy jumped out the window.

The warden forced his legs into motion and he rushed to the sill, thinking for a moment that the boy had jumped from the third story window to a messy death. Instead, he saw Megamind land on some kind of flying glider. Without so much as a backward glance, he steered the thing toward the city skyline.

The warden stepped back. It was…. It didn't compute. It was all a ruse? Just… the boy had….. his boy?

He struggled to take a breath.

The boy had known exactly what he had wanted to hear….

..._Daddy_….

Jesus, it had been so long since he had been daddy. And for him to toss something like that away so carelessly…. as if it didn't matter…. as if it meant nothing…

_Fuck._

_No._

And he had been smirking. Laughing. The warden was sure of it. And it was too much, it was all just too much.

That was the moment when the room began to spin, and he struggled to hear anything over the thudding of his own heartbeat in his ears. He tried to breathe, but found he couldn't make his lungs move right. And his chest. His chest was so tight. Like it was going to explode. Why was it so damn warm in here all of a sudden?

He tried to fight against the rising panic as he gripped his chest and struggled to breathe. Then he was dimly aware of Beatrice standing over him shouting. Was he on the floor? This seemed a lot like the floor.

_Daddy_. He had been daddy once.


	11. Chapter 11

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 11_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Chapter 11 - The warden finally reaches out to get some help_

_Beta: Sharelle. My wine friend. My wine pen pal._

_Special Therapy Consultant : Jentle55, who patiently answered my questions about being a therapist (with the caveat that this all fictional, and shouldn't be taken as therapeutic advice, etc). If you have never read her fic On The Couch, where Megamind gets therapy, you really really should. It's great and you can get to it from my favorites._

_Author's Note : "The Cave" and "Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons are the soundtrack to this chapter. They are great songs and you should listen to them._

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

It had been so goddamn humiliating.

Beatrice had rushed into his office after hearing the window shatter, and she at least had the good sense to call 911 when she saw him fall on the floor, clutching his chest. That was when things got fuzzy.  
>The warden had spotty memories of being taken to the hospital. He did remember being sure he was having some kind of heart attack. He was admitted to Metro City General feeling weak but his vitals were strong. Hours of waiting and a battery of tests returned the final result.<p>

His heart was just fine. He'd had a panic attack.

The state launched an official investigation into this particular escape, and eventually the warden was cleared of any legal charges in helping the boy escape. However it left a permanent black mark on his shining career and lingering doubts as to if he should even be in the job. Now he wasn't just the guy that couldn't keep Megamind in, but he was the guy whose gross incompetence helped him get out.

The investigative team assumed Megamind had done something to him – slipped him a mind controlling gas or threatened him in some way. The warden didn't bother to correct that assumption since he was praying to get out of this with his pension intact at least. A part of him chaffed at throwing the boy under the bus to save his career.

A bigger part of him was too angry to give a shit.

There had been noise about replacing him, sending him out to pasture at some white-collar resort prison upstate. But fact was, no one else wanted this job. Well, no one sane. The few people who seemed interested were all showboat types with personnel files thicker than the Bible looking to make a name for themselves off Megamind. And it was hard to hold the warden too responsible given the fact that he had been carried away on an ambulance in the aftermath.

In the end the state had kindly agreed to retain him, but they made it clear he was on one hell of a tight leash.

And the first time he walked back into his office? He had to steel himself to stand the sight of that window, and the thick metal bars that covered the brand new pane of glass. Looking at it was enough to make him seriously consider early retirement.

And the stress didn't help his insomnia.

He lay awake most nights in his tiny apartment, wanting nothing more than to forget, but he couldn't stop obsessing over the events of that day. Megamind had said all the right things - exactly what the warden wanted to hear. He kicked himself for not knowing it was a con job all along.

Still, he forced himself to relive it over and over again as days turned into weeks and into months, as though rehashing it in his mind would change the way it had all played out. As though he would tweak a moment in his memories and that would magically make it all have been real. But it never worked.

The hug became the hardest of it to bear. More than the lies and the words. He couldn't stop replaying the feeling of wrapping his baby boy in his arms and actually believing that it could have been okay. He hadn't held him in so long, and that had been real. The words had been a crock, but the believing had been real. He shuddered and forced himself to stare at the ceiling.

He would not cry. No, he would not. Bad enough to be awake until four or five when he had to get up at seven. He refused to add tears to the mix.

Instead he would stare at the ceiling, trying to get lost in the patterns in the cracks. He would lay there until the exhaustion finally claimed him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So why don't you fill me in on what happened this week?" Lynne asked, in a tone that was both compassionate and professional.

"Well, uh, I didn't spend time with him at all," the warden said, looking past her shoulder to the framed diplomas on her wall. A bit of a lie, but he continued. "He was only in for three days it turned out. I told the guards to tell him I was away on business. He asked for me every day. I think he knew they were lying."

Oh, the warden knew that Megamind knew. The warden knew that Megamind knew because he had botched the entire thing himself.

The boy kept weird hours and it wasn't unusual for him to be awake deep into the night or sleep most of the day. And despite all that had happened, the warden still hated to go home when Megamind was within the facility. J_ust in case_, he told himself. Hell, he could lie awake there just as well as he could at home.

But he had gotten a new couch in his office and he hated it. He could feel every spring in that old brown leather monstrosity but at least it was familiar. This new modular gray thing was simply not comfortable at all.

So at 4:39am, on the boy's second night, the warden had finally padded down to the familiar dome.

Megamind happened to be sleeping in the chair and the warden had stood at the porthole watching him. Just watching. He looked so normal when he was sleeping. No affected mannerisms, no egotistical rants, no emotional manipulations, or wacky escape plans. Nothing the warden had to police or distrust. Watching him sleep drained his anger. Megamind looked like he had as a little boy – simple and so full of potential.

Standing there pulled at his heartstrings on this evening more than usual, and made his eyes overfull and swimming. But he was very aware of the night guard at the monitoring station watching him, as well as Megamind's tendency to awaken with little or no warning. So he turned back towards his office before he could embarrass himself. As he did, his shoe had squeaked against the floor.

"Warden? Is that you?" the boy had called out. The warden ducked quickly around the side of the dome and hit the button on the control panel that closed the window. Then he trudged back to his office where he had collapsed into a heap for an hour or two before had to be up and ready for a 8am meeting.

But the warden didn't tell his therapist any of this.

He just stared slightly over her shoulder at the numerous degrees and credentials lining her walls. Better to let her think he had stayed away than for her to know how weak he had been.

"And how did not spending time with him at all work out for you?" Lynne asked, in the calm evenhanded tone in which she asked most of her questions. He was almost tempted to tell her the truth but still he held back and just shrugged instead.

"Well, you said I should create boundaries," he replied testily.

"I'm hearing from your tone that it was difficult for you." It was a statement but she made it sound like a question he needed to answer.

He sighed and rubbed his forehead with one hand. "I don't know. Yes. But I don't know if that matters."

Lynne didn't say anything and he felt like she was waiting for him to elaborate. So he continued.

"It was hard and it didn't feel right. But nothing about this ever seems right so... I don't know." He shrugged. She nodded.

"I saw in the paper that he was out again," she prompted. "How are you feeling about that?"

"It's a relief... but then... He's out, he's in…. I don't know," he trailed off. Oh he knew. He knew that he felt enormously guilty for not even trying this time. But even after two months of seeing this woman once a week, he still felt like he had to keep some things guarded. Keep them safe.

It wasn't that he made a habit of lying to Lynne, just sometimes it just took him a while to tell the whole truth.

At the first appointment, he had just mumbled out something about not sleeping well. The reality was he'd been to three different doctors who had tried him on a half dozen prescriptions of sleeping pills, none of which seemed to work. Each had suggested that his problems were mental, not physical.

He hadn't even told his therapist about Megamind until his third visit. He had dropped vague hints about problems with his kid just to see how she would react. When he finally did spill the beans about the boy her only response was a gentle, "Sounds like he might be tough to deal with."

The warden had been relieved for a moment and then even more on edge. If she wasn't going to be judgmental, did that mean he would have to talk about it? He had no idea how to do that. Perhaps that was something he had in common with the boy after all. After a lifetime of keeping things in it was not easy to let them out.

Hence the half-truths. He was trying, but it was just awkward and he was used to covering awkwardness with a tough, no-nonsense gruffness that usually put people off.

"It seems like you're always on edge because you never know when he'll be in or out." Lynne's statement pulled him back into the present moment and the warden snorted.

"Well, it's not like I have any control over his comings and goings."

The warden tried to appear nonchalant, crossing his legs and trying to calm his fidgeting fingers. God, he never knew what to do with his hands during these sessions.

"It must be hard to not have any control over him," she parroted his own words back at him.

"My God, yes! It's so frustrating. Sometimes I just want to shake him and make him behave. I know he can. He's smart enough to do anything he sets his mind to."

"That must be very frustrating."

"It is!" He threw his hands up.

_And hard and difficult and painful_, the warden thought. But it was easier to talk about being irritated with the boy than being heartbroken by him. The warden had told Lynne about Megamind manipulating him with promises of leaving villainy behind, including the painful details – how he had held him and how much it had hurt when the boy had sardonically called him daddy. He might hold some things back, but he was somewhat proud of himself with being square with her on that count.

"I sometimes wonder…" the warden took a breath before going on. "I wonder if it would have been different if I would have found another family for him. A real one. A backyard and a dog you know? If he wouldn't have ended up like this if I would have just acted like a real parent from the beginning and done what was best for him…. Given him to someone who would have been…. better." Even saying it out loud make him feel a little sick.

"Let me see if I'm following you. I hear you saying that you don't see yourself as a real parent?" Lynne ventured.

"Hey, I was a real parent," he countered, a bit defensively. "I really did change his diapers and take of him when he was sick and try to do what was in his best interest. He was just a defenseless kid. Sometimes I just wish that people knew that, you know? Everyone looks at him and they see a monster, a supervillian. But he was a kid who loved his binkie and playing in the snow or drawing for hours and…..."

He let out a shaky exhale before he continued.

"And he was mine. He wasn't a monster. He was just a kid. My kid. And that was real."

Wow, that had gotten unexpectedly intense. He took a moment. Lynne, to her credit, seemed to know that he needed time to compose himself and didn't push him any further. Once he had his bearings he tried desperately to regain control of himself in this conversation.

"But you know, it's better that people don't know. I already blame myself enough, I don't need other people to help," the warden sneered.

"Do you think other people would blame you?"

He rolled his eyes dismissively. "Of course they would. He's a goddamn mess and I'm sure they'd say it was because I didn't tell him that I loved him enough or something".

"Do you think you told him that you loved him enough?" she asked.

He gave her a long look. "Talk is cheap, Lynne. You and I can both appreciate it. What I said or didn't say… I did the best I could for him. All the time. A man can say all sorts of things, but you judge him based on his actions. Or at least that's how it was done in my day."

"Was that how your parents were with you?" Her abrupt change of the subject actually pushed through his defenses and he pursed his lips for a moment before answering.

"My dad died when I was four, a dockworkers accident. I barely remember him. My mother remarried when I was in high school, but then she died right after I proposed to Madge. Ovarian cancer. And um, she told me she loved me a lot. I… um…. yeah," he stammered, not really sure what else to say about her.

"Are you still in contact with your step-father?" Lynne inquired.

"Sometimes I get a Christmas card," the warden shrugged again. "He moved out to Phoenix right before Blue came. I never even told him that I adopted a kid, much less an alien one. I didn't know what I would say so I just…. didn't. There's not really a roadmap for that kinda thing."

"Sounds like you didn't have a lot of good roadmaps for being a single parent to an alien child."

The warden shrugged. "It wasn't a problem. I mean, sometimes it would be confusing, but isn't that normal? Don't all parents feel overwhelmed and confused at times?"

"Can you give me an example of something that was overwhelming and confusing?"

He lolled his head back against the back of the chair. "Well, there was always the daddy thing." Lynne nodded at him and he continued.

"He would only call me daddy when he was really upset about something. Maybe it was a comfort thing? I think he was a little confused by the whole daddy concept, honestly. And he stopped doing it after the catastrophe at the school, so it never seemed... I don't know..." The warden shrugged.

"It never seemed what?" Lynne pressed.

"Important to fix. It..." Goddamn it, she was staring at him so intensely. "It was kinda nice actually. When he would call me daddy. At least until this last time. Until he spat it back in my face."

"I remember, that was difficult for you."

He shrugged and looked at the floor unsure how to respond to that, then continued as though she hadn't said anything. "I tried to make it really clear that I wasn't trying to replace his real father, you know? But it was nice. To be appreciated. When he would call me that even though he didn't really understand it."

"I'm hearing that you don't see yourself as his father?"

He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes. "In the beginning, no, I was trying not to get… attached. I didn't know if someone was going to, I don't know, confiscate him as part of a government experiment. Or send a spaceship from the sky to take him home or something. It wasn't until he got old enough to really talk and explain the situation with the black hole... That was when I stopped worrying that someone was going to come."

"And take him from you?" she asked.

"Yeah. And then the more I got used to having him here….. Something changed." He shook his head and allowed himself the small indulgence of remembering one of Blue's wide-eyed little baby smiles or the way his head would droop to the warden's shoulder at naptime. Then he thought better of it, and stopped before he hurt himself too much.

"You know, no one would believe me if I told them now, but he was such an easy baby. He was so sweet and affectionate. I guess... I just thought that it would last forever." The warden looked down again. "That even when things were tough, that we had a good foundation. I never thought..." He stopped and changed gears to explain.

"We used to play this game when he was little. Superheroes and supervillians. I never thought he was taking it seriously. He usually wanted to be the hero anyway."

She was doing it again. Looking at him now, intensely. Like she was looking at him to finish that thought.

"Even when he was a teenager and he was a mouthy little shit... I was sure he would be fine somehow. I just knew it. He just needed time to figure himself out. I knew it. He's so smart, but he's just so stubborn once he digs his heels in. And I didn't understand why he was being so goddamn stupid." He took a breath and then let out a bitter little laugh. "I guess I was the stupid one."

"I don't think it's stupid to want what is best for your child. That's part of being a parent," she replied sympathetically to him. He fidgeted in the chair for a moment.

"This isn't…. the life I wanted for him. He's so smart. People just don't know. He could do anything. The things he builds, these ridiculous robots and harebrained plots, that's just the tip of the iceberg." He looked Lynne right in the eye for the next part.

"People look at him and see this evil alien threat but they just don't know. I kept trying to convince him that he could have a normal life, but he's had to put up with people taking one look at him and assuming the worst at every turn. Maybe if people on this planet had been a little nicer he might be trying to help this city instead of trying to take it over."

"Could you tell me a little more about times that people could have been nicer to him?" And she raised her pen to take notes.

"Well, it could have started with Wayne Scott not beating the crap out of him with dodgeballs," the warden snarked bitterly.

"I tried other schools," he continued, "but most of them wouldn't even consider it once they found out he'd been expelled from 'Lil Gifted Kids, like the idea of giving an eight-year old a second chance was absolutely crazy to ask for. So I got him tutors, you know? Mostly university kids. And you would think young, smart, open-minded right? Nope. We had one guy come out - a fucking post-doc in physics, mind you - and Blue was so excited. Well, the guy took one look at him and just turned around and walked out without saying a word. Blue was 12. The kid swore up and down to me it was fine, but one of the night guards told me he cried himself to sleep. Who the hell does that to a child? And he was a good kid - so damn enthusiastic about science and learning. He would have been the best student that asshole ever had."

"We eventually found a couple tutors that were good fits, but he never warmed up to them, or to anyone after that. He never even gave them a chance to get to know him, the real him. Not the way I did."

"It seems to me like you know Megamind in a way that no one else does." Her sympathetic tone inadvertently made him feel uncomfortable.

"Yeah well, I used to think so. I thought I did. Believing….. Stupid. Even with him rampaging through the streets on a spider robot, I still trusted him. Just so goddamn stupid." He looked back up at the diplomas, staring intently as he spoke.

"I thought even if I wasn't perfect or if the world was hard on him, that my best was good enough. And it wasn't. Clearly." He crossed his arms defensively across his stomach and let out an angry exhale. Lynne seemed to study his response carefully before proceeding.

"James, you let him into your life and you loved him. You never judged him by the color of his skin and that's something to be proud of. That's more than most people ever did for him. These issues are complex and difficult, but continuing to punish yourself can't be a part of your program."

He scoffed and turned his head to stare briefly towards the door. "So what do you think should be a part of my program? What the hell is the program for this?" He knew he was being rude and that this woman didn't deserve his ire.

But he had been in free fall for so long. Maybe someone could tell him what to do, what he should be doing. Maybe someone else could fix it.

"I think we need to start with this," Lynne said gently. "You're already taking good first steps by coming in and talking about it."

"And you think that's gonna solve all my problems?" he challenged her bitterly.

"If you want it to. Therapy is about you. It's about how much you want to get out of it, and how much you're willing to put in," her voice wasn't cold, but it was clear and the warden appreciated that she was at least willing to shoot straight with him. He leaned forward as he listened.

"The goal here is not for you to find a way to change him. It's for you to make changes in your life if you want to. I can already tell that you're a very private man who doesn't open up easily. I am here to offer a listening ear and an objective opinion. Together maybe we can look at some of the things that are troubling you and reach a solution. But you have to be the one ready to do the work and deal with the consequences. This is your life. Not mine."

His instinct was to roll his eyes and say something shirty about that last statement, but he refrained. He wasn't entirely sold, but she wasn't wrong. Lashing out at her for trying to help wasn't any better than what the boy did to him. And it might be nice to have someone who could just listen.

"I don't really have anyone like that," he said lamely. "Mostly I just work."

"You work seems very important to you."

He licked his lips and nodded. "Important. But it's hard…." He stopped then restarted that sentence. "I'm the top administrator, so it's not like I can just chat about my problems with people there."

"That sounds very isolating," she said with a sympathetic nod.

He just sat quietly and took that statement in. He wasn't a fool. He knew he worked too hard. He had known that before the boy even came along, before Madge even left. He ventured a bit of a confession.

"I don't really have anything in my life besides work. And him. Even when he's being awful and I can't trust a word he says."

"Would you be interested in trying to connect with other parents who are having similar troubles?" Lynne asked.

Now that did make him roll his eyes. "With all due respect, ma'am, my child is so dangerous that they have to put him in a specially designed cell like he's some kind of goddamn zoo animal. I don't think there is anyone else on this planet with 'similar troubles'," the warden scoffed.

"Your situation is unique, but you're not the only parent struggling with their adult child. There is a group; it meets every third Wednesday at the Southwest Community Center on Broadview." She scrawled some information on the back of one of her business cards and handed it to him. "It'll be up to you if you want to talk, but you can just sit and listen if you want."

~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~

The warden didn't even know why he went. Just to torture himself, he supposed. All these people. Getting up and talking about how their kid was a crack addict or something. How their son had lied to them and couldn't hold a job or how their daughter refused to leave the man that beat her. He didn't know what he was doing there.

He'd gone to the meetings for three weeks in a row and never said anything besides his name. What would he say? "Hi my name is James and my kid is a megalomaniacal supervillian with a distinctly blue complexion that tries to kill Metro Man on a regular basis and no matter how much he spits in my face I can't stop thinking of him as my little boy?" Yeah, no, no way. Better to just sit silently.

So he sat and listened to all these other parents and their sob stories. Grievance stories, the facilitator called them. The same guy ran a group for victims of super-powered crime. But the warden wasn't quite that masochistic.

Going to group didn't make him feel any better. It didn't make him feel any worse. It just made him feel less lonely. It made him wonder how long it had been since he regularly spent time with anyone besides his co-workers or the boy.

And it made him realize how much of his life he had put on hold. He listened to a dark-haired woman talk about her daughter and furrowed his brow. If he continued to do what he had always done, he would keep getting what he always got.

He had already removed the photo of him and Blue on the first day of school from his desk, at Lynne's suggestion. She thought it would be better to put up a photo of a happy time so he wouldn't beat himself up every time he looked at it. As a result he had spent a long Saturday afternoon sorting and organizing the assortment of snapshots he had dumped into the file box along with the boy's childhood toys until he found the perfect one.

It was a simple candid shot and the warden was pretty sure Leroy had taken it. In the photo the warden was smiling and cradling a small blue infant that was happily trying to chew on his own hand. However he didn't put the frame back out on the desk. Instead he put it in one of the drawers, on top of some assorted office supplies. Then it was there in case he needed it.

And Lynne was right. It was better. It wasn't going to fix everything, but it was something he could do besides rerunning his failures in his mind.

The support group wrapped up without him saying a word, and he silently ducked out of the room before any of the other parents could corner him into anxiety-inducing small talk. He walked from the community center to his car, parked a few blocks away on a side street. His hands slid into the pockets of his old wool coat against the unexpected chill in the air.

_It'll be winter soon_, the warden thought as cars whizzed past on the darkened street. Winter always meant the boy's birthday.

He sighed as he put one foot in front of the other. He needed to start building a life for himself that didn't revolve around Megamind. The very idea bordered on impossible, since giving up worrying about him would feel like abandoning him completely. The warden had no idea how to go about doing it, but he knew it needed to be done.


	12. Chapter 12

So today is an exciting day. Because sharelle just finishing betaing the end of this story! Updates should be coming more frequently now, with only two more chapters and a epilogue before we are done! I almost can't believe it!

Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 12

Author : Dani Kin

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. We have arrived at Metro Man Day and the warden is pretty sure this watch is more than it seems.

Beta : My my my my Sharelle

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><p>~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~<p>

The warden knew it was trouble as soon as he saw the damn thing. It was customary to open all prisoner mail, but the guards in the mail room knew to bring anything like this straight to him. Meanwhile, the boy had been back in prison for almost two weeks, which meant it was just about time for his regularly scheduled break out.

And mailing himself a watch in a tacky gold and white box was just the kind of thing that had 'escape plan' written all over it.

The warden gave an irritable huff. Perhaps he could tease some information out of the boy about it. He sure as hell wasn't going to give it to him. He hastened to the solitary confinement area which housed the familiar round dome.

As the warden approached, he noticed the guard on duty reading a newspaper. That was irritating. Just because everyone knew they were powerless to stop Megamind from escaping didn't mean that they should give up all pretense of working. He snapped at the man then ordered him to open the portal window.

The guard, nervous at having been caught being inattentive, quickly did as he was told. The portal opened, and the warden peered in to the sight of an empty chair. Goddamn it. He fought a moment of panic as he pressed his palms against the glass. How had Megamind managed it this time? Was the watch just a red herring? How could the guard not even notice his prisoner was –

"Boo!"

Suddenly a blue face was smushed against the glass and the warden instinctively jumped back. He caught his breath in time to see the boy laughing and spinning in his chair.

Everything was just a goddamn game to him, wasn't it? The warden narrowed his eyes in irritation.

"Good morning, Warden. Great news!" the boy said in a smarmy, mocking tone. "I'm a changed man and I'm ready to re-enter society as a solid citizen," he said sardonically, his face full of affected innocence.

The annoyance within the warden quickly blossomed into a white-hot rage as Megamind echoed the very words that had once tugged on his heartstrings. He exploded his reply.

"You're a villain. You'll always be a villain. You'll never change. And you'll never leave." He tried to sound authoritative but he knew that was a total crock.

"You're fun." Clearly so did the boy.

It seemed like the more he acted professional and detached towards Megamind, the more the boy delighted in baiting and antagonizing him. The warden took a deep breath and tried to remember what they talked about in group, as well as with Lynne. He tried to ignore the boy's antics and focus on his purpose for coming down here today.

He wasn't here to play at being a parent. He was here on official prison business.

"You got a present in the mail," the warden said dryly.

"Is it a puppy?" the boy asked feigning enthusiasm.

That casual disinterest told the warden that this delivery was indeed planned – otherwise the boy would have been trying desperately to rein in his natural curiosity. The warden picked up the card and read its message aloud.

"From Metro Man. To count every second of your 85 life sentences." He watched the boys eyes for clues but Megamind gave him nothing. "That's funny. I never thought Metro Man was the gloating type." Megamind continued to stare at him with a self-satisfied grin.

"Ooh but he does have nice taste. I think I'll keep it!" The warden sneered, trying again to get a response out of the boy. However he got nothing from the skinny blue man but smug.

"Any chance you could give me the time?" Megamind purred at him. "I don't want to be late for the opening of the Metro Man Museum."

Oh God, the egotism came off the boy in waves. Whatever was up with this watch, the kid arrogantly believed it was all going according to his plan. Which meant that talking to him was just a giant waste of time.

"Oh no. Looks like you're gonna miss it," the warden replied sarcastically. "By several thousand years."

The warden turned and stalked off, utterly frustrated at his failed errand. He could hear the boy laughing manically as he walked away, but he didn't turn and give him the satisfaction of the last word.

He rounded the corner quickly, his shoes making a frustrated clip against the floor. What was the boy playing at this time? Why mail himself the watch if he didn't seem to want it? Did he simply want it inside the prison? The warden felt somewhat relieved that it was currently strapped to his wrist. Then when it transformed into a mechanical lemur or started projecting holographic spiders on the walls at least he would be the first to know.

He moved briskly down a corridor where a pair of guards were playing cards through the bars with some well-behaved prisoners. Usually the warden was willing to let it slide, but today he was not in the mood.

Then the lights flickered and that was the last straw before he exploded, "The city doesn't pay you to loaf."

He realized that his voice did not sound like his own as soon as the words left his mouth. However the next events happened so fast he could barely react. It was only when he tried to object to being tazed and tackled by the guards that he realized exactly whose voice it was. Then there was just pain and confusion as he was hauled into the solitary cell.

It was inside the cell that the warden regained full command of his faculties, just in time to watch the boy use the watch to wear a hologram of his own face and waltz out the door.

Unfortunately the warden remained stuck inside the cell with the very guards who had tazed him as events unfolded. At least there was a TV in there.

It started like usual, with ridiculous boasts and banter that left the warden wondering why he seemed to be the only one besides Roxanne Ritchie who found both Megamind and Metro Man's behavior equally childish. Then just when it seemed like Metro Man would be sweeping the boy off his feet and back to the prison before lunch, something went horribly wrong.

The warden watched in confusion as the hero struggled and the laser beam fired. But even in that moment he didn't understand the significance. He was mostly just annoyed that Megamind had caused such a large-scale explosion at the observatory. Yes, the place was abandoned, but that was no excuse to blow it to smithereens.

Then something came flying into Megamind and for a moment the warden's heart was in his throat, worried that the boy had been injured by debris from the explosion. A view of Metro Man's familiar cape assuaged those fears a bit. The warden grinned sardonically and shook his head. The kid would be back in his cell within the hour. That might be some kind of record.

When the cape was pulled back, the warden was as stunned as anyone by what was revealed underneath.

A skeleton. A goddamn _skeleton_.

And not just any skeleton.

The warden felt his gut twist and he tasted bile in the back of his throat.

Metro Man's skeleton was sprawled on the floor at Megamind's feet.

Metro Man . . . Wayne Scott . . . was dead.

The warden stood slack-jawed and stared at the screen. He heard someone say, "He did it," but didn't realize at first that it had actually been him. Some distant part of him registered Megamind's laugh as he crowed his victory for the entire city to hear, but it was like listening to the echo of a voice at the end of a long tunnel.

Time became elastic. He wasn't sure how much had passed, but at one point he realized he was actually banging on the door to the solitary cell so hard his hand hurt. And he was yelling, yelling at the top of his lungs for someone to get him out of there. He couldn't remember the name of the guard that eventually opened the door, though he nearly knocked the man over in his rush to escape.

He started to emerge from the haze to the realization that he was actually running, fueled by something that seemed to resemble rage. People in admin were staring but he didn't stop. He slammed and locked the door behind him as soon as he entered his office.

Then he stood still in the familiar room as it seemed to lurch and spin around him. What had just happened? That didn't just happen. WHAT THE FUCK HAD JUST HAPPENED?

Out of nowhere he slammed his fist down hard on the desk. Everything jumped, pens went rolling, and papers fluttered to the floor. He raised his fist to slam it again but midway he lost the rage and his arm sagged limply back down.

And that was when the tears came. With the anger gone, there was nothing but this awful, gnashing sensation in his stomach and thick, hot tears burst out before he could stop them.

Oh God. His boy had killed someone.

The warden had said he had let go of believing the boy would ever change, he had said it in front of a room full of people at group. But he realized now that was a lie. There had always been a last little shard of hope inside him, fragile and buried down deep to keep it protected. It was the last piece of what he had believed about the child he had raised, and the boy he loved.

It had whispered to him that the boy's behavior was destructive and difficult, but he wasn't a monster and would never actually harm anyone.

Now he felt that sliver of hope as it was brutally ripped out of him. Its sudden loss left a palpable, hollow pain behind that seemed to intensify with each choking sob. The warden tried ineffectually to wipe the tears off his face with the back of his hand but they were instantly replaced. He'd held it together for so long, but he couldn't hold any more.

His baby.

The little baby he used to kiss on his bald head and rock to sleep every night in this very office.

His little boy had killed someone.

The warden fumbled in his pocket for his keys, and for a little silver one in particular. His hand shook as he used it to open the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet, revealing an old file folder box. The warden opened the box and searched amid the clutter of toys and stacks of photographs. Under a thick manila envelope and a smattering of crayon drawings, he found a small square of fabric.

It was old and faded, from love and too many washings. But if one squinted they could still see a pattern of tiny green frogs.

He sat back on the floor, leaning against the side of his desk and drew his knees up to his chest. The blanket was soft in his hands as they trembled, unable to will himself to move. Instead he just sat, letting the tears roll down his face and soak into the precious little scrap of memory with each choked sob.

Good night hugs and blowtorches. Birthday cake and daddy and oh God, oh God, oh God.

Years of trying to get through to him and the warden had failed.

He was never going to get him back.

The little boy he'd held in his arms was gone.

All that was left was the villain.


	13. Chapter 13

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 13_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Megamind comes home to the prison, quiet and dejected. And the warden has no idea what the hell to do._

_Beta : It's a bird! It's a plane! It's sharelle!_

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<p>

He made the guard repeat it to him twice. And then a third time for good measure.

Megamind had just walked right off a bus and in through the front gates of prison. He was unarmed, but refused to talk to anyone except to say he needed to see the warden.

This wasn't just bad - this was an event completely without precedent.

The warden tried to take a breath. He put on his strongest mask of professionalism and refused to let himself feel the usual rush of relief that his boy was safe. Not even with everything going on out there, not this time. Instead he walked down to the gated entrance at a deliberate pace, unsure what to expect.

Why the hell would he come here? Megamind had gotten everything he had ever wanted. So what was the game this time? The warden put on his most stern expression as he rounded the corner.

Megamind was standing in front of the doorway, and he advanced towards the warden as soon as he saw him. Frankly, he looked awful. He was still wearing the tattered shreds of a suit that was missing his usual capes and collars. The warden waited for him to say something, to offer either arrogance or explanation, but instead he silently offered up his wrists.

The warden frowned. He was confused yet spellbound by the look of naked vulnerability in Megamind's eyes. It was the look of a child who wanted to be punished and the look of a man who had given up. The warden wasn't sure who the hell he was looking at, but the boy he knew was nowhere to be found.

Clearly something awful had happened to him. The warden had seen the news, same as everyone else in Metro City. Reports had been sketchy but it had started with rumors of a new hero and grainy footage of Megamind engaged in the type of battle he usually waged against Metro Man. But then it seemed like something had gone bizarrely wrong.

Now the television blared that the city's new hero had turned villain. There was talk of evacuations, especially out of the downtown. The warden didn't want to put the prison on full lockdown, but he was monitoring the situation closely in case it came to that.

He was concerned for the city, concerned for the prisoners and staff in his facility…. and, though he felt weak admitting it, concerned for Megamind. The reports made it sound like he had gotten his butt kicked and then just disappeared into thin air right before this Titan guy went completely off the rails. So despite both the warden's attempts to quash his feeling and the hopeless look on the blue alien's face, he had to admit he was a little relieved to see that he was still in one piece.

However the warden certainly wasn't going to let himself to imagine that Megamind's presence here was anything more than a frantic attempt to flee at best, or an elaborate trick at worst. He didn't hesitate to slap a pair of cuffs on the boy.

Megamind had killed Metro Man. Now, more then ever, he belonged in jail. Then the warden accompanied him to intake, where he was searched. The torn costume was removed and exchanged for an orange prison jumpsuit.

The boy was uncomfortably silent throughout the process and the warden couldn't help but stare. Usually this was the part where Megamind muttered about the flaws in his latest invention or bantered theatrically with the guards. Now there was nothing but the sound of their shoes as they moved down the long hallway.

When the door to his dome-shaped cell slid open, Megamind walked straight inside. He obediently allowed the warden to remove the handcuffs, never looking up from the floor. He slumped down in the chair before the portal even closed.

One of the guards made a move towards the monitoring station, but the warden touched the man's shoulder lightly.

"I'll take this one," he said simply.

The warden made himself as comfortable as he could in the thin institutional chair and watched the monitors. Megamind sat, looking down at his hands. He twiddled his thumbs and he sighed. Then he put his head in his hands and stared blankly forward. At one point he bit his lip and the warden actually thought for a second that he might start crying. Instead he rubbed his face and reached for the remote and began flipping channels apathetically.

The more the warden watched, the more he became convinced that this was not an act. The boy's distress was genuine, though he still didn't quite understand the cause. But he had no idea what to do about it. Hell, he didn't know if it even mattered.

Not after everything that had happened in the last few weeks.

He didn't need to call Lynne. She'd called him as soon as the first news reports of Metro Man's death came in. And she had kept calling all day as he had sat bereft on the floor with the little green baby blanket spread over his lap. After the fifth or sixth time, he finally picked up and shook silently as he made a special appointment for first thing in the morning.

The warden had taken a whole week off work. It didn't matter. He'd been banking vacation time forever; he never used it. However he didn't do anything with the time off. He just sat at home, watching the news. Watching that ridiculous press conference, watching coverage of whatever asinine thing the boy was up to on any given day. Bank robbery, sure. Using a trebuchet to hurl a firetruck into a building, why the hell not.

He ate, he slept, he showered, and he watched TV. He dragged himself to and from therapy appointments in a fugue. It felt like sitting shiva, not just for his son, but for some part of himself that had stupidly believed that he had gotten a grip on his own life in the last few years.

And through it all, he wondered darkly if he would ever see him again or what he would do if he did. He wondered when S.W.O.R.D. would show up to take him out and if he would even get a chance to bury the body. Or if they would just bring him to the lab straightaway for dissection.

Then he got up on the eighth day, showered, and cut himself off from everything that wasn't work. He didn't go to group. He watched the news as a dispassionate observer most of the time - though he couldn't help but rankle when Roxanne Ritichie called Megamind a "monster" on the air, even if it was in the context of praising the baffling improvements that were popping up all over the city. He even stopped returning Lynne's phone calls then stopped answering when she called him to remind him to book his next appointment.

The warden spent the last few years trying not to be a workaholic, but once that Death Ray had fired, work was all he had. The rest was just too much.

Now he watched the boy at the monitoring station and everything he'd forced down was coming right back up.

The warden yearned desperately for someone to tell him what the hell was going on here. A super-powered madman was destroying the city. The warden wasn't dumb enough to believe that the boy's presence here was a coincidence, given the state in which he'd been in when he arrived. But why here? Why now? And why that hollow look in his eyes?

He'd seen Megamind defeated more times than he had fingers and toes, but the boy had always gotten back up. The warden had never seen him look like this.

He looked lost.

Broken.

The warden couldn't stop juxtaposing the unfamiliar man in the cell with his memories of Blue as a child and kept coming back to visions of him in tears with tiny arms outstretched needing to be held. But even then the warden knew his baby boy would pick himself right back up and try again.

This man in the cell did not seem capable of that.

It was like Megamind had thoroughly given up. There was a time when the warden would have said that was fine, because he had thought he'd given up on Megamind too.

However now the warden found himself full of churning, contradictory emotions and he had no idea what to do about any of them.

Should he try to say something? Goddamnit. What would he say? What reassurance could he even offer now? He had never been a man who was good with words and it seemed like everything had been said a thousand times. Or not said, but now it was too late.

The warden wanted to shake Megamind and force him to say what was wrong. He wanted to give his boy a hug and tell him that it was going to be alright. He wanted to hunt down whomever had hurt him like this and make that person pay. He wanted to do or say whatever it would take to bring back the light in his eyes, even if it was that glint of evil glee that always made the warden feel like the shittiest parent in the world. It would be better than watching this ghost haunting his boy's room.

But he didn't do any of those things.

Instead the warden gave himself a stern mental lecture about appropriate boundaries . Whatever the boy had gotten himself into was not his business. The boy would do what the boy would do, just like he always did : careen through life, leaving nothing but ash and bone in his wake. The warden didn't need to throw himself into that wake. His job was to monitor his prisoner and he needed to focus on that.

So the warden continued to sit and watch Megamind on the monitors. Megamind channel surfed. He paced. He drummed his fingers against the armrest of the chair. He put his head in his hands. He was perfectly silent.

Which made the sharp click of approaching footsteps impossible to ignore. However the warden never expected to turn and see a perfect copy of himself staring back and holding a rope.

But it still didn't take him long to figure out who was really there.

"Hello, Minion," the warden said nonchalantly after giving himself a moment to process the image that stood in front of him.

"Hello, Warden," the fish replied politely in the warden's own voice.

Goddamn, that was surreal.

"I'm guessing you're here to bust him out." The warden gestured towards the dome.

"Someone has to stop Titan and with Metro Man out of the picture…."

The warden simply nodded. For years he had wanted nothing more than to have the boy safe and home, and there was no part of him that relished the thought of Megamind facing off against a man likely to crush him with his bare hands.

"Yeah. He could do it," the warden said stiffly. "But I can't just open the door and let him walk."

But now, faced with the devastation of the city and the sad stranger in that cell, he knew that Megamind couldn't stay here. He took a long obvious look at the rope in his copycats' hands.

"However, if Megamind's henchfish were to overpower and restrain me, there isn't much anyone could say about it."

"Then I'm sorry, Warden, but I need to tie you up now," Minion said apologetically.

"Okay." And the warden tried to relax in the face of the surreal sight of himself expertly winding the rope around his own midsection.

"Minion?"

"Yes?"

The warden paused. He still had too many thoughts, and so many questions. He didn't even know where he would begin.

"Never mind."

Then the rope was tied tight and Minion nodded at him.

"So how are you going to talk hi-" The warden was cut off mid-sentence by a loud banging coming from the cell.

"Warden! Warden, listen to me, you have to let me go. Titan has to be stopped!" Megamind's voice echoed from inside .

The warden looked up at Minion, still wearing a copy of his face. "You're up."

The hologram stiffened his back and walked to the portal on the door.

"Sorry, Megamind, you still have 88 life sentences to go. Plenty of time to reflect on what you've done."

The warden wrinkled his nose. Did he talk like that? He hoped not as he watched Megamind's response on the monitors in front of him.

"Did you want to hear me say it? I'll say it. Here it is. From the blackest part of my heart." Megamind hammed it up theatrically and flung himself against the portal window. "I. Am. Sorry." The warden watched the boy slide comically down the glass.

"Not buying it," was Minion's taciturn response. The warden nodded to himself. Yeah, that sounded more like him.

Megamind took a few steps back and let out a deep sigh. "Oh. I don't blame you. I've terrorized the city countless times. I created a hero who turned out to be a villain. I lied to Roxanne, and my best friend Minion…. I treated like dirt." The warden arched an eyebrow at that particular piece of information as he listened to the boy continue to speak.

"But please don't make this city," Megamind paused thoughtfully, almost whispering when he resumed. "Don't make Roxanne pay for my wrongdoings."

The warden felt something stir down deep in his gut. He had longed for this kind of self-awareness from the boy for so long, as well as any glimpse of the sweet child he used to be. And now he was getting it.

But not quite.

Because it wasn't him staring into that cell.

"Apology accepted," Minion said sweetly, and turned the face of the watch to become a fish in a robotic gorilla suit once more.

"Oh Minion, you fantastic fish you," Megamind replied, his voice thick with gratitude and relief.

"What are we waiting for? We better get going." Minion chirped.

Megamind stepped out of the cell and his eyes fell immediately upon the warden sitting there, tied to a chair. The grateful smile he had previously shared with Minion faded a bit as he paused just beyond the cell's doorway. The warden kept his expression carefully neutral and held his gaze.

In that moment, something passed between the two men - something that said more than words could: Megamind was making sure he had permission to go. The warden was confirming it.

Just before the boy turned away, the warden noticed something else. A small flicker of that old, familiar light had returned to Megamind's eyes, banishing the stranger who had been occupying his skin. The spark was unmistakable, but something about it was also very different. It wasn't the glint of evil glee that the warden was so accustomed to seeing, but at the same time, it wasn't completely unfamiliar either.

It was something that reminded the warden of a small blue child from so many years ago, playing his favorite game.

And that boy had always insisted on playing the hero.

The pair of aliens moved past the warden and headed towards the exit. He could hear their good-natured laughter echo down the hallway, and the warden knew he'd made the right choice. Megamind was laughing. And it wasn't an evil laugh.

The warden had always been pretty goddamn lousy with words. But as the pair marched off to face their enemy, he felt the need to say something. Frankly, he said the only thing that came to mind.

"Good luck, fellas!" he called down the hall after them.

He thought he heard Megamind say jovially, "We're gonna die!" followed by Minion laughing, then abruptly stopping to say, "Wait, what?". The warden just shrugged. This was shaping up to be a really weird day.

Then they were gone and the thick quiet descended once more.

The warden sat there, tied firmly to the chair, and felt almost overwhelmingly conflicted. Megamind was going to go out and do something… heroic. So he should be happy – right? He'd heard Megaminds words and they seemed genuine enough.

It was fairly obvious to anyone who knew him that Megamind had a secret affection for Roxanne Ritchie. And the warden couldn't deny that it made him swell with pride to see him eager to save her, especially since he was apparently the reason for her plight. It seemed like he might finally be taking responsibility for something…

But this Titan character seemed dangerously unstable. And even if Megamind won, then what? What would that mean? It wouldn't make Wayne Scott any less dead. The warden didn't have the answers and he didn't know if he had any more hope left in him. He took a breath to clear his head.

He'd given the pair a solid head start. Now it was time to start yelling.

If his baby boy was going to face-off against some super powered psycho, then at the very least he was going to need a TV.


	14. Chapter 14

_Well folks, here we are. The big finale, what everything has been driving towards. I hope that you all enjoy it, though I will warn you that it is LONG and those of you who are criers might want to have some tissues handy because this shit is about to get intense. Also there is an epilogue and that will go up sometime soon._

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 14_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth._

_Special thanks go to : Dal Niente for helping me process this chapter while dangling off a cliff in the Appalachians, and Sharelle for discussing it over delightful bottle of wine and crab ravioli in addition to her usual beta superheroing._

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~<p>

"Mr. Woodridge, your two o'clock is here."

Goddamn it. He had totally forgotten about this meeting with someone from the Office of Budget Management. Some accountant he had never heard of called yesterday and managed to convince his new receptionist Janice that it was vital they meet as soon as possible. Which either meant that this Bernard Jones guy was trying to make a name for himself or that the OBM was going to come down on him like a ton of bricks over last year's overhead.

The warden sighed gruffly. "Send him in."

The office door opened and a man entered wearing a blue turtleneck and a tan blazer. No briefcase or even a notepad. That was odd.

And the man seemed to be studying his office in great detail.

"Mr. Jones. Take a seat," the warden nodded as he shuffled the papers on his desk. The man looked at the chair and then at him, before sitting down awkwardly with his knees pressed together.

"What can I do for the OBM today?" the warden said casually as he watched the man. This guy's hair looked like he had just stuck his finger in a light socket.

"There are several concerns to address at this meeting," the man responded, eyes still darting around the office as though he was looking for something. "We were wondering about some of the numbers from the budget last year. And we're taking extra care since this is the most famous prison in the city."

The warden cocked his head. "Most famous?"

"Well, you did house Megamind here on and off for three decades," the man responded with an odd little grin.

The warden raised an eyebrow. This conversation was going to a place that instantly made him suspicious.

"True," the warden replied, still guarded.

"And now he's out there trying to become a hero. Must be a strange sight for you to see," the man pressed with a casual tone that was clearly forced.

It was strange and the warden had plenty of thoughts on that subject. But he wasn't going to share them with a suspicious stranger.

"And what does that have to do with auditing?" the warden drawled.

"Oh, nothing," the man replied with a familiar chuckle that the warden couldn't place. "I just wondered since he spent so much time in here…. All his life from what they say."

"Just one of many prisoners to walk through these gates," the warden replied with a strained veneer of professionalism. Then he pretended to shuffle papers on his desk. There was something very odd going on here.

"Do you work in Scott Cudhey's division? I heard he might retire this year. Man has a terrible short game," he said with a smile, calmly floating a balloon.

The man seemed thrown by the question for a moment before nodding. "Yes, rumor is that he may," Jones responded generically.

The warden's eyes narrowed. _Gotcha_, he thought.

"That's funny since Scott Cudhey died three years ago."

The man's eyes widened behind his large round glasses as he was caught out. The warden leaned back in his chair.

"Now I don't know what your business is here. But you sure as hell don't work for the OBM," he said harshly. The man shook his head.

"I don't know who you are and I frankly don't care. But I will tell you the same thing that I have told every reporter, private investigator, and any other nosey busybody who has come traipsing into this facility over the last fifteen years." His voice was quiet but sharp and he leaned in, holding the man spellbound.

"I am not your way to Megamind." The warden spoke slowly with icy firmness, a voice honed from years of practice to make the listener's blood run cold. "There is no way to Megamind that goes through me or through my prison. Now get the fuck out of my office."

The man looked like a deer in the headlights and stayed in his seat. The warden held his gaze for beat then his annoyance grew as the man stayed frozen in place.

"Get out or I will drop kick you out," he growled. The man stood up abruptly, but didn't move towards the door. He seemed to be shaking as he raised his left arm across his chest and brought his right hand to his wristwatch, and twisted the face. There was a flash of light and then the warden was the one with wide eyes.

Because Megamind was standing there, looking at him nervously.

A moment passed and neither one spoke. Then the boy opened his mouth to speak.

"I….. um… hi?"

The warden released the breath he didn't know he was holding.

"Hello".

The two men simply stared at each other for a tense moment. The warden noted that the boy was wearing his usual supervillian suit, though sans the spiked collar and cape.

"People came to you… to get to me?" Megamind asked, the words clearly foreign on his tongue.

"Yes," the warden answered curtly.

"And you protected me from them?" His brow furrowed as he still tried to grasp the concept.

Another pause. "Yes."

"Even… when I was a villain?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Such a simple question, but the warden didn't even know where he would begin even if he wanted to. Instead he just said, "It's complicated."

The boy frowned and the warden knew why. Megamind hated not knowing, and hated it more when things were deliberately kept from him. But tough, he was just going to have to learn to live with it. Another pause stretched out between the two men before the warden's curiosity and aggravation got the better of him.

"Why are you here, Megamind? Getting nostalgic for the life of villainy? You do seem to love tricking your way into my office."

The thin blue alien frowned guiltily but the warden was too aggravated to be interested in his feelings.

"No. I don't plan to go back to villainy. Or come back here."

"Then what then?" The warden narrowed his eyes at him. He knew it didn't make sense, but he was simultaneously angry that Megamind never wanted to come back and angry that he was here in the first place. This conversation couldn't be over soon enough as far as he was concerned.

"Roxanne…. she um, wanted to get me a lawyer," Megamind explained. "She was worried about the possibility that someone would send me back to jail. So I met with this man, a uh Franklin Jacobs? And he told me that he had worked on my legal behest before. When I was a child. That…. I have all this paperwork. A social security number. Citizenship. And adoption papers?"

Megamind searched the warden's eyes as he said the last one. Then he coughed awkwardly.

"He gave me a file of notes to look over and said that we might need to request offi-shool copies of everything. But he said you had all the originals. If you still have them."

The warden sat back in his chair. So the boy wanted something. That was why he came.

"I do. I have them," the warden confirmed, still tense. "Do you want them?"

"Yes," Megamind replied simply and they held each other's gaze. "Jacobs said it was time consuming and expensive," he added after a beat.

The warden wasn't sure how to respond to that without losing his calm or divulging more than he wanted the boy to know. He merely shrugged in the affirmative.

"So why did you do it?" Megamind pressed.

The warden sighed as he got up from behind the desk and took out his keys. What did it matter, telling him now? The sooner he gave him what he came for, the sooner he would go.

"I was trying to maximize your options. I wanted you to be able to go to college. You can't get financial aid without documentation. Or do basic things like get a job or a driver's license. Vote if you wanted to. I wanted you to be able to get a passport and travel if you liked. So yes, it was expensive, and it took almost four years in and out of court," he said tersely.

"But I never went to court." Megamind looked skeptically at the warden, as though he still didn't understand.

"You didn't. I went. We were trying - I was trying - to keep a low profile," the warden explained as he made his way around the desk.

"Oh," Megamind said, and the warden couldn't help but recognize the flicker of hurt that briefly flashed across the boy's face though it lasted less than a second. He debated whether to acknowledge it or to let it pass.

"I was trying to be careful. I didn't want anyone to come and take you away before things were legally in order. It wasn't because I was ashamed of you," the warden added quietly.

Megamind seemed surprised by that admission and chewed the inside of his lip. "Who did you think would take me?" he asked.

"S.W.O.R.D…. the feds. Or someone who might want to stick you in a lab and study you all day long." The warden waved his hand dismissively. He didn't want to open this subject up to any more discussion than he had to.

Megamind curled back his lip defensively. "What are you talking about? No one like that ever came after me."

The warden crossed his arms, matching defensiveness with defensiveness. "No. I cut a deal with them. As long as I kept you under control they agreed to back off. And when I couldn't do it, Wayne made it clear that they weren't welcome in Metro City."

Megamind reared back and blinked, momentarily stunned and as he tried to process that piece of information. The warden took a small comfort in having rendered him speechless.

It gave him a chance to take the small silver key in his hand and he knelt to reach the bottom drawer of the file cabinet. Megamind took a step closer, peering over the warden's shoulder to get a better look. The warden pulled out the old cardboard file box and took a breath as he opened it. He needed to stay focused and not let old feelings distract him from the task at hand.

_Keep it professional,_ he told himself. _Don't engage him. Just give him what he came for._

The warden opened the box and silently removed the neatly folded blanket and the picture that used to sit on his desk, along with dozens of other snapshots rubber banded together in white envelopes labeled with events and ages. He removed the notebooks of doodles and the erector set pieces and a pair of tiny socks with spaceships on them. Finally at the bottom of the box was a plain brown envelope.

He pulled it out of the box and held it for a moment. In all the years he had never let its precious contents out of reach. It had been the one thing he always knew was real and the one thing that he always swore he would never lose.

He handed it wordlessly to the blue alien, without even looking up.

Megamind gingerly took the envelope, still staring intensely at the items on the floor.

The warden bristled at the boy's gaze. They had been Megamind's things once but now they were his, and they were not here for the boy to gawk at.

"You have what you came for now, so don't let me keep you," the warden said, letting his bitterness seep through. He began to silently repack what was left.

"Why did you keep those things?" a small voice asked from over his shoulder.

The warden stopped packing, the photograph from the first day of school clenched in his hands.

_Because they were yours. Because they were all I had… all I could have of you. _

The warden couldn't bring himself to answer the question. He resumed packing, purposely not looking up at the boy. He just needed Megamind to take the envelope and go.

The warden never expected Megamind to kneel on the floor beside him. Or for him to reach out for one of the last things left on the floor - the little green blanket.

"I always loved this blanket. Sometimes I wish I had taken it with me," he said wistfully.

The warden nearly ripped the blanket out of his hands. It was his dammit. The boy couldn't have it. He didn't have much left and the warden wasn't about to let him take that too. He smoothed it and folded it and set it carefully in the box.

Megamind tried again. "It was a good blanket," he whispered sadly and the warden could feel the boy looking at him.

The warden tried to breathe. He couldn't keep his emotions at bay with Megamind so close to him, especially without the orange jumpsuit or the handcuffs that had served as a reminder to treat him like just another prisoner. But the boy wasn't a prisoner anymore; he was the city's new hero. And now Megamind was walking about his office like it was no big deal to lie his way in and reminisce.

So he needed to breathe - or else he was going to have another panic attack.

"Please," the warden finally muttered. "Please don't." He wasn't even sure what the hell he was asking him not to do. But the boy was up to something and the warden couldn't work up the energy for whatever the hell it was. He just needed to pack up this box.

"Do you hate me?" Megamind blurted out.

The warden wasn't prepared for that at all and he snapped his head in his direction. The boy's expressive green eyes were sad and heavy.

"I don't blame you if you do. I deserve it."

Then without giving the warden a chance to answer, Megamind abruptly stood up. "Forget it. I can go. I won't bother you anymore."

"I don't..." the warden started, then stopped with a weary sigh as he slid the box back into its home in the bottom drawer. "I just can't keep doing this."

The warden stood and set his keys on his desk. Then clasped his hands in front of himself, at a complete loss for what to do next. He couldn't imagine physically throwing the boy out, but Megamind had what he came for. So the warden didn't know why the kid was still here, making him feel so goddamn uncomfortable.

Megamind squeezed his eyes shut and nodded. He walked towards the door then paused with his hand on the knob, turning back one last time.

"I want you to know, I'm not going to squander my gifts for my own selfish gain anymore. I'm going to use them to help people. I'm going to be the best hero I can."

He paused for a beat before he began to turn the knob.

"And I'll try to make you proud of me. Maybe, someday, if you can."

The boy turned towards the door, and the words flew out of the warden's mouth before he could even think about what he was saying.

"I'm already proud of you."

Megamind froze.

The warden closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them again to finish what he had unexpectedly started. "Look, you could have hid here. But you didn't. You went out there and handled that guy like a pro. Even though he was a total nutcase."

Megamind turned silently to face the warden, his hand still on the door as he watched the older man speak.

"I saw the whole thing on TV. God, I thought he was gonna kill you, but you put up a hell of a fight. You… You did good, kiddo. I was very proud."

There was long pause and then Megamind removed his hand from the door knob. He took a few tentative steps back in the warden's direction.

"I don't even know how to talk to you. But I wanted to…. to say…. I'm sorry." Megamind's voice was soft and shaky and he looked down at the chair. "Roxanne said….. she said that I should tell you. So you would know. How sorry I am." The boy took a big breath and puffed his cheeks like a chipmunk before exhaling.

"You were a good daddy."

The warden felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room.

The warden didn't consciously decide to move closer to him, but it was as though his feet took him there by instinct. Now he was standing close enough that he could reach out and touch him if he wanted to. The warden towered over Megamind's short, thin frame.

He had been through this with the boy before - been told everything he ever hoped for before, only to see it all cruelly ripped away. It didn't matter what his instincts were telling him, he was not going to make the same mistakes again.

"You cannot just walk in here, say you're sorry, and expect everything to be okay," the warden said, his voice thick with resentment.

"I know, I know," Megamind repeated, nodding his head. "Because you hate me now." The boy stated it as though it were a fact so simple that even a child could understand.

"You know, don't pull that crap with me," the warden snapped at him. The boy quickly looked down at the floor in shame. "I don't hate you, I just…. don't trust you right now. Fucking hell, Megamind, it's not just the years of…. of everything. You murdered Wayne Scott in cold blood."

The boy didn't look guilty when he heard that. He just winced as he looked up at the warden.

"Ummm…. Wayne isn't dead," Megamind said, fidgeting lightly.

"Excuse me?" The warden blinked at him.

"Wayne. He isn't dead. He wanted to retire. So he, um…" the boy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "faked his own death".

The warden stood slack-jawed and he felt a flush of relief. However it quickly followed by outrage.

"Wait. So the whole thing was a set up?"

"Yeah. Only I didn't know it at the time. I didn't find out until later. Until Roxanne and I begged him to do something about Titan, which he didn't. So now everyone still thinks I killed him." Megamind shrugged nervously. "People can think whatever they want about me, but I don't want them thinking that Roxanne is dating her boyfriend's murderer."

The warden raised an eyebrow at that. Dating? Did he just say dating?

Then he watched Megamind bite his bottom lip and furrow his brow. His confusion and insecurity were abundantly clear. The warden studied the man in front of him for a long moment before replying slowly.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," he said. "Roxanne Ritchie is a smart woman. And now you have all that." The warden gestured towards the envelope in Megamind's hands. "So maybe things will be easier. With your case."

Megamind looked down at it and then back up to the warden with an expression the warden couldn't read. Then the boy gently opened the small metal clasp, letting the contents slide into his hands.

The warden exhaled anxiously as the feeling of being overexposed returned.

"So, uh, it should all be there," he said. "Birth certificate, adoption, and citizenship's on top. Social security card, too. The ones at the bottom are all for the trust, my will, pension, and financials. I don't know if you need those for your legal case, but… you can hold on to them anyway, I guess." The warden knew he was rambling, though he didn't know why.

Megamind traced a finger over the seal embossed on the top page.

"How can I have a birth certificate if I wasn't born on this planet?" he asked with a deep, thoughtful frown.

The warden shrugged.

"You'll have to ask Jacobs about that. I just know that a redacted birth certificate was part of the adoption procedure."

He watched Megamind slowly flip through the pages in his hand, then come back to one in the middle. It wasn't embossed or covered in decorative flourishes, but the warden knew exactly what it was. He could see the heading _Final Decree of Adoption_ from where he stood.

And while he had not memorized the contents entirely he distinctly remembered a relevant portion amid the legal gibberish :

_"The court finds that adoption is in the best interest of the minor being adopted. It is therefore ordered that the Petition for Adoption is granted and the minor child Blue Woodridge is declared an adopted person under the legal care of the petitioner. This court grants full legal custody to his father James Woodridge."_

Megamind stared at the document for a long moment, and the look he gave the warden when he raised his head was one of fury.

"How could you adopt me and never tell me?" Megamind hissed, his sudden anger catching the warden completely off guard. "How could I have all this stuff-" He waved the contents of the envelope. "-and you never said a word?"

The warden was surprised for a moment but then sneered defensively, darkly relieved to finally get the stab in the back he had known would eventually come.

"What did it matter?" he countered angrily. "If you knew about any of it, you would have just bragged about it in some evil monologue. But Metro Man just kept bringing you back here. You never seemed to notice that you haven't seen the inside of a courtroom since your first juvenile arrest, and that record was expunged when you turned 18. So unless the Metro City DA wants to actually charge you with something, you have a clean criminal record."

Megamind's eyes nearly bugged out of his skull at the last statement. The warden watched the boy's face twitch as his mind worked to digest that bit of information, until he came to the one part he couldn't work out.

"What about the life sentences?" he demanded.

"I made it all up. I thought it might… scare you straight or something. I don't know." The warden waved his hand dismissively. The truth was that it had gotten almost comically out of hand and he hadn't known how to stop it.

Megamind gritted his teeth. "So why even bother with all this, then?" He waved the papers again. "If I don't matter?"

The warden wasn't sure how to answer that.

"It started the day you got expelled and-" he began, but Megamind cut him off mid-sentence.

"I was EIGHT and you didn't tell me?" he interrupted. "I wasn't stupid. I would have understood that - if you wanted to adopt me." The boy was cycling through facial expressions too quickly for the warden to read them, though most of them looked like something between raging and crying.

The warden rolled his eyes in defensive exasperation. "What the hell was I supposed to say, Megamind?"

"You could have told me something - anything! You could have said you were going to adopt me! You could have said that you thought about it, or even that you wanted me!" the boy snapped back.

The warden froze, stunned speechless for a moment by that statement.

"You didn't think I wanted you?" he finally managed to ask.

Megamind gave a shifty glance around the room as he crossed his arms in front of himself uncomfortably. "I don't know. Maybe," he spat out.

"What the hell did you think I was doing for the last thirty-two years? Do you think that I changed every diaper or read your bedtime stories every night because I didn't want you? That I would keep you from S.W.O.R.D. and reporters and try like hell to get you to give up all this supervillian bullshit because I just didn't care?"

The warden could feel his face heating up as his anger grew, until he was raising his finger to point it in the boy's face as he lectured him.

" You have no idea the things I did for you! Because to you it was nothing more than some goddamn game."

"I don't have any idea because you never tell me anything!" Megamind retorted. "What am I supposed to do, Warden? I'm not a mind reader! I don't understand this pile of papers, or why you have a box with my baby socks at the bottom of your drawer! I don't understand any of it!"

The boy's face contorted as though he might burst into petulant tears at any moment. And something about that made years of frustration within the warden snap like a coiled spring.

"You know what? No. Don't. Just don't," he hissed.

"For the last 15 years I haven't even known where you LIVED! You don't own a goddamn phone! I can't pick up and call you because I'm worried, or to say I was thinking of you, or even to…" And his voice cracked just a little. "…just say happy birthday!"

The warden was gritting his teeth and clenching his fists. The words just flew out of him as he spoke more honestly than he ever had in his life. And he couldn't stop.

"Do you know what that's like?" he went on. "To know that the person you love most in the entire world is out there and you can't reach them? To know that the child you raised - your child - is doing something that terrifies you, and to worry about him every day because you can't do a damn thing about it? What it was like to just _sit_ and _wait,_hoping that Scott dropped you off in one piece?

"All I had left to hold on to was a baby blanket and a fucking box of papers. So don't you dare lecture me about how 'you don't understand'. I have never understood and I've had to live with that every day. Every single day, since you turned your back and walked out of here."

The warden took a few angry breaths and squeezed his eyes shut then turned to face the wall behind his desk. He couldn't let the boy see him like this. He needed to try to rein in his emotions and collect himself. Or hope that the boy would just leave now that his back was turned.

Then the warden felt a hand on his arm. He opened his eyes in surprise.

The boy was resting one of his gloved hands on his upper arm, and looking up at him with that inscrutable expression. The warden just stared dumbly. He couldn't remember the last time the boy had reached out for him.

"I'm sorry?" A pleading voice came out of Megamind's mouth. "Does that help? I said I was sorry." And then the boy began petting his arm gently.

The warden couldn't deny that his first impulse was to give in, but that was simply impossible. Instead he tried to remember boundaries, tried to stay as still as he could. He wasn't prepared for this. He needed to keep the boy at a distance. Distance was better. Distance had helped hold himself together for the last few years.

But it was hard. So hard, so goddamn hard. Something in him would not stop screaming to accept the boy's clumsy attempts at comfort. As though Megamind was still a little boy and the years of mistakes were merely an injury the warden could kiss and make better.

It had been so long, but sometimes he still thought about what Leroy had said to him all those years ago about having regrets. The warden knew it was true because he had spent over a decade living it. Sometimes he felt like there was nothing between them but what was unsaid. Nothing but regrets.

Responding to this simple touch would mean letting him in and facing those regrets. It would mean trusting that he was telling the truth about everything from Wayne Scott to I'm sorry. And the warden didn't know if he could do that.

He wanted so badly to just tell Megamind he was forgiven and all was okay now, but the warden couldn't lie to him like that. The truth was that Megamind wasn't a child anymore, and too much had happened between them to be fixed with just one simple gesture of comfort.

The painful years stretched between the two. The warden knew he would always love him, but wasn't entirely sure that he ever could forgive him.

Yet he couldn't bring himself to stop the boy from petting his arm.

"Goddammit, kiddo. It's not that simple." He hated how old and tired he sounded. Why was Megamind pushing this? He couldn't really expect to waltz in here with one 'I'm sorry' and expect all to be forgiven. He wasn't that stupid. The warden sighed and rubbed his face angrily, removing some of the moisture that was threatening the corners of his eyes.

The boy let go and deflated back. The warden was still looking at the wall when Megamind began to speak.

"For a long time I thought you were trying to make me into something I wasn't. To be what you wanted. And I was so angry at you. For not understanding my destiny, for constantly trying to change me and…. for sending me to shool in the first place. But when I was here before I fought Titan - when I apologized - I thought I was talking to you."

The warden slowly turned to face him and saw he wasn't the only one barely holding it together. The boy looked wrecked.

"It was Minion, which was fine because I owed him an apology too. But…. I thought I was talking to you. And so I thought… just for minute…. I thought that you might be able to forgive me," Megamind said shakily, and then he started to take in small gasping breaths.

Which was just about all the warden could take.

His hands came up slowly, as though they were moving entirely of their own accord. They gripped Megamind's shoulders and the boy froze for a second, as though he was terrified to move lest he ruin it all.

But then Megamind's arms lunged out for the warden's middle. He was still holding the manila envelope and the warden felt it jab into his back as the boy grasped him with the familiar strength of a barnacle.

The warden tried to take a breath. He was fairly certain he couldn't handle this, that he couldn't handle the flush of memories that threatened to come as soon he had the boy in his arms.

Until Megamind's shoulders began to quake. Then the warden heard little sobs, the boy gasping irregularly as he tried and failed to hold them in. He was crying? Wait, why was he crying?

The warden tried to remind himself that this could still be an elaborate trick, but listening to that voice didn't make him feel strong anymore. It made him feel petty and cynical. And the warden had so nearly lost him, had so nearly redefined the word terrified while watching him fight that Titan character. There was a palpable relief at having him close and so the warden allowed himself that amid the confusion and the awkwardness.

And frankly, despite everything between them, the warden still couldn't stand to see him to cry.

"Hey kiddo, don't cry. It's just… don't okay?" the warden said as he haltingly tried to pat Megamind on the back, giving his best attempt at reassurance, though he was so many years out of practice. "It's okay. Shhh." Then the warden tentatively pressed the boy's large blue head against his left shoulder, right where he had slept as a baby.

At that point Megamind well and truly lost it.

He started crying with a force that left him jerking and spasming with every loud sob and gasped breath, as though he was being shocked by an unknown force. The warden could feel the wetness of the boy's tears soaking through his shirt. He sighed lightly, and slumped his head against Megamind's in a final attempt to still him.

There was nothing to do but continue to whisper variations of "Shhhh, shhh, kiddo, don't cry, shh," as his grown son shuddered and sobbed in his arms. When there seemed to be a pause in his gasping sobs, the warden pulled the boy back.

"Megamind, what is wrong?" he asked, surprised by the rich tone of concern in his voice. He didn't know he could do that anymore.

Megamind shook his head and bit his lip so hard that the warden wondered if he might bite clean through it. "I-I can't," he gasped. "It's never going to be g-good enough".

"Can't what?" the warden asked. When an answer was not forthcoming the warden tried again. "What can't you do?"

"I know I can't... just-just say I'm sorry and have it be okay. And I can't d-dump all my problems on you," he choked out as he continued to cry and shake his head frantically. "N-not after everything… I've…. I can't-I can't."

The warden didn't know what to say to that. Then again, he never knew what to say. He had spent his time of late carefully honing his ability to detach emotionally from the boy, but that skill set was no use when he was sobbing in the warden's arms.

He watched Megamind shaking so hard it seemed like he could barely breathe. God, he looked like a complete mess. The warden needed to get this crying under control before Megamind became completely hysterical. He moved to squarely grip his shoulders.

"Okay, okay. Megamind. Stop. Take a breath. Can you breathe for me?"

Megamind let out another sob then nodded. He pulled his head back and took a tiny breath, then another and another, each slightly longer and deeper than the one before as the warden repeated "breathe, breathe for me, there you go" in a deep calm voice.

"That's a good boy," he finally said as the boy calmed enough to start rubbing his face to clean up the tears.

Then he gestured for Megamind to sit down in one of the hard plastic chairs facing his desk. The warden pulled the other chair over so they were facing each other, knees almost touching. He took the envelope from the boy and set it on the floor next to his chair. The warden didn't know what to do next but he figured that giving Megamind another quiet minute to compose himself couldn't hurt.

"I've never been anything but a burden to you," Megamind said abruptly. "Since the first day I landed."

That warden wasn't really sure if the boy was talking to him or himself, but that statement definitely warranted a reply.

"That is not true," he said firmly. "It's just… not." He frowned, unsure where something like that had come from. The boy continued to stare at him with red puffy eyes, like he was longing to say something else but all he was willing to give was silence.

The warden waited and the seconds of silence ticked by until he began to feel a familiar flick of frustration. The one that usually resulted in him saying something smug or rude or blatantly antagonistic because the boy was shutting him out once again. Hero or villain, it didn't matter and nothing would ever change.

He took a deep breath and tried to think of what he had talked about with Lynne in therapy:

Calm. Clear. Consistent.

He tried one final time.

"Megamind, I am asking you to talk to me. If you can't tell me, or don't want to, then… it is what it always is. But I'm asking because I want to know if there is something I can do."

"Why?" Megamind asked wearily, but still with certain guarded suspicion.

The warden rubbed at his temple. Attitude aside, he didn't even know where to begin to answer that. Logically he knew he shouldn't be trying to get involved, but logic be damned.

"Because…you're my kid," he finally drawled lamely, feeling like a bit of a moron for saying something so obvious aloud. "I just want to know what's going on. For once."

Megamind furrowed his brow as he stared at the warden thoughtfully, then rolled his shoulders back and gave a familiar I-am-pretending-not-to-care shrug. "I'm the black sheep," he said. "A screw up."

"No, you're not," the warden disagreed with a pointed stare. If the boy wanted to bust out his old mannerisms, then he could play that game, too. "I've been watching you these last few weeks. You're doing so much good out there, so don't give me that." The warden crossed his arms and glared at him.

"Please. I've never been good," Megamind said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

"Hey." The warden abruptly grabbed Megamind's knee, causing his eyes to widen to almost comical proportions. "That's crap. That was crap when they were feeding it to you back then, and that's crap now. You were a good baby and such a good kid. That black sheep bullshit's something they put on you. It was never about who you really are."

"But they were right," Megamind said with a sad shrug, letting the mask drop a little. "Even as a villain I failed every single time. And it didn't bother me!" he rushed to clarify haughtily. "I simply focused on how successful my next brilliant scheme would be. But now…. heroes don't think like that," Megamind explained, easing into a deep frown.

The warden watched his body language as he spoke, noting the way Megamind drew in his shoulders and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyebrows. This was more honesty than he had seen from the boy in years - maybe ever.

"Heroes have to get it right, Warden. That's why the bad guys always lose . But winning every time is mathematically impossible! I don't have super strength or laser vision. And if I can't win every time then I'm just failing all over again."

The warden listened carefully and resisted the urge to sigh when the boy seemed finished.

"Megamind, things aren't always that black and white. And if you put that kind of pressure on yourself, you'll crack up," the warden said simply. He was beginning to understand how Wayne Scott might have thought it would a good idea to fake his own death.

"But I need to know. I can't be a hero if I always fail," Megamind responded stubbornly.

This time the warden did sigh. "You didn't fail to stop that Titan asshole. You didn't fail to save Roxanne," he said, and leaned forward with his hands in his lap. "Hell, Megamind, you probably saved the whole damn city."

"But if I mess this up then everyone will be even more disappointed and hate me more," the boy said forcefully. "Then how can I ever make things right? I need to show you, show Roxanne, and Minion and the entire city. I need to show you I can fix it." He made a determined fist and hit his other palm with it.

The warden finally made the connection. "You're trying to make amends?" he asked quietly, pressing his fingertips to his temple.

As though being a hero could fix everything the boy had broken. As though it could fix the years of hurt and anger. As though it could fill the little hole that the warden learned to live with inside himself where his child should be. As though it could wipe away all the sleepless nights and harsh words.

Now the boy responsible for all that pain was sitting here looking miserably guilty as he nodded.

"I thought I knew, Warden," Megamind tried desperately to explain, the ragged edge returning to his breath as he gestured with frantic energy. "I knew that I was supposed to be evil. I knew it since I was eight years old and I planned my whole life around it. And I had fun."

The warden tried to take still, even breaths and maintain some kind of composure as he listened.

"How can I know something so completely – know it and believe it - and be so wrong? And what if I'm wrong about being a hero too? I can't do that Warden; I can't do that to everyone. So I can't fail. Not ever." Megamind slumped his shoulders dramatically and flopped down into the chair.

And in that moment the warden didn't see a villain or a hero or even the person who was simultaneously the source of the most pain and the most joy he had experienced in this lifetime.

He saw his little Blue frowning up at him from his lap, and trying to puzzle out the difficult meaning of the word "daddy".

It made the warden smile, just a little. And with that the warden realized something.

He wanted to try.

The boy was trying, albeit in strange and convoluted ways. The warden wasn't sure how, but he needed to try to meet him somewhere on that.

So when he spoke again, his words were careful and slow.

"Megamind. You've got me; you've got Roxanne. Hell Minion came here to bust you out even though you two had some kind of fight, so I know he's still got your back. We care about you, and you know what? We will tell you if you're doing something wrong."

"But none of that matters if I let everyone down-"

"I can't speak for them," the warden said, cutting Megamind off before he could get on another stubborn rant. "But If you are trying, really trying your best, then you're not gonna let me down. People make mistakes; you're allowed to make mistakes. You'll make them and then you'll take some time to cry or sulk or worry and then you'll get right back up and keep going. You will. I've known that since you were a baby.

"As for the rest… You're not going to earn my forgiveness by being a perfect hero. That's…. it's just going to take time," the warden said gently.

"It's all so hard," Megamind confessed, letting the last bits of his mask fall to reveal the terror underneath the semantics and theatrics. "Everyone is looking at me - watching me like I know what I'm doing. And I don't." He slowly reached out for the warden's hands.

"I know. I know, kiddo." The warden squeezed the boys blue fingers in his own. "But the fact that you worry so much proves that you care and that you're taking this seriously."

Megamind nodded, then warden felt the slight twitch of the boy's fingers, reminding him that they were still wrapped around his own. That was, in and of itself, fairly marvelous and completely unexpected.

Which meant this was the best time he would ever have to try to say what he should have years ago. If he could just work up the courage.

"Everyone makes mistakes," the warden reiterated, and then he took a moment and a deep breath. Megamind noticed the long pause and cocked his head as he watched the warden curiously.

"There were mistakes. I made mistakes. I should have protected you. From Wayne Scott, from that teacher… Hell, from anyone," the warden said with a harsh tone that managed to surprise even himself. "God, Blue, I should have been there. And I wasn't. And I'm sorry."

Megamind reared back, blinking rapidly in flustered surprise. "Warden, you couldn't-"

"No," the warden cut him off forcefully. "I dropped the ball. I knew that school was hard for you, and instead of asking the questions and getting involved I let them eat you alive. I got all that paperwork to try to protect you legally, but it wasn't enough. I should have just told you from the beginning …."

The warden could feel the familiar squeeze of anxiety, the sense of being exposed, and the urge to just stop there. But not talking hadn't made anything easier over the years, so he forced himself to keep going even though it made him feel a little nauseous.

"You have an envelope full of papers trying to show you something I should have just said. I should have made damn sure you knew how wrong they were. You weren't evil; there was nothing wrong with you. I should have made sure you knew how goddamn much I loved you just the way you were. I should have fixed it before the damage was done."

The boy's eyes were wide as he stared at the warden. His breathing was shallow and uneven. His elastic face betrayed a rapid flash of thoughts and emotions as he processed the warden's words.

The warden waited impatiently during the pause, willing his boy to say something – anything – in response to his confession of regrets from so long ago.

"You blame yourself," Megamind finally said quietly, and shook his head. "No, no. It wasn't your fault I became a villain."

The warden could feel the intense burn of Megamind's gaze and he looked just past the boy to fixate on the large fake plant in the corner of his office. "I should have known. I should have made it my business to know," he said reiterated.

"Warden, I didn't tell you. And you tried so hard to convince me that I wasn't meant to be a villain. It's not your fault that I was too stubborn to listen," Megamind argued with a furrowed brow.

The warden shrugged dismissively. "You trusted me. I let you down."

"Hey, hey. You couldn't protect me from the entire world." Now it was Megamind's turn to squeeze the warden's large hands reassuringly. "You can't think of it like that. It doesn't make any sense. I don't want you to do that. Please."

The boy's face was furrowed with concern for him, and he looked more and more like the kind child of the warden's memories. However the warden didn't want to let himself get sucked into the past. He needed to think about the future. Especially now that all this was out in the open.

Nothing was going to be solved today, but maybe in time. Maybe if they kept trying. Maybe if they talked like this more often.

The warden closed his eyes and took a breath. This was all very intense and he was starting to feel overwhelmed. He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled slowly as he opened his eyes.

"Megamind, this is your home. This prison and this office especially," the warden said abruptly. "So you don't need an appointment or a disguise, okay?"

The boy seemed relieved as he nodded gravely. "Thank you for telling me. That is per-tin-ant information."

The warden let out a little chuckle at his familiar mispronunciation. There was so much about him - about all this - that was familiar. And so much that was brand new.

There was another pause as they just looked at each other awkwardly, then the warden changed the subject to one that had truly piqued his curiosity earlier.

"So it's more than just a professional relationship between you and Roxanne Ritchie, eh?" he asked with a smirk.

And Megamind's entire face lit up in a giddy smile.

"Roxanne," Megamind looked at him with an expression the warden could only describe as lovesick joy. "She's wonderful, Warden. She…. likes me." He said it softly, like it was some kind of miracle. "She is willing to give me a chance, even though I don't deserve it. Because for some incomprehensible reason, she cares about me. Even with everything I've done."

The warden gave a little smile of his own and a chuckling exhale. "I get that."

Megamind looked guilty for a second, but he eased when he noticed the smile on the warden's face. Then he began to fidget in his seat and bite his bottom lip, clearly wrestling with something. The warden gave him a pointed stare.

"What? This only works if you talk to me," the warden reminded him. "So out with it."

"Ummm, do you think you could help me with something?" Megamind asked shyly.

"What?" the warden asked, leaning back so his legs wouldn't fall asleep in the uncomfortable chair.

"Roxanne. She… Sometimes I just don't know how to do things. And she usually doesn't get mad, but I just wish I had someone to ask about these things. Minion tries, but he's just terrible at it. So I need someone to tell me what to do sometimes. I know it's a lot to ask but I don't want to mess it all up. She's too important." He squirmed in his seat as his wide eyes searched the warden's face hopefully.

_Well doesn't that beat all_, the warden thought. The boy wanted to ask him for dating advice? He was secretly elated, but the warden tried not to let it show. Instead he stood up and reached for the keys on his desk.

"You know what? Let's go." He nodded to the boy.

"Go where?" Megamind asked quickly, once again guarded.

"Doesn't matter. It's not every day I get the chance to give some fatherly advice to my son." He beamed at the boy and Megamind burst into a funny, almost shy, smile in response.

The warden took a moment to straighten his tie and made sure his suit coat was neatly buttoned and uncrumpled. Then looked over at Megamind. The boy was clearing the last bits of moisture from his eyes with the edge of his sleeve, before he carefully smoothed down any wrinkles on the front of his own outfit.

The warden felt the oddest surge of pride as he watched their mirrored movements. _Huh, _he thought,_ presentation_.

They moved to leave, then Megamind raced back into the room and quickly grabbed the envelope off the floor. The warden held the door and they exited the office together. On the way out the warden stopped off at his receptionist's desk. She cocked her head a bit in confusion when she saw Megamind by his side.

"Janice? Clear my schedule for the rest of the day," the warden instructed with a smile. "I'm leaving early."


	15. Epilogue

_So we finally reach the end of this story. _

_I want to thank all of you who came with me on this little journey. It has taken me the better portion of ten months from conceiving this idea to actually writing, editing, and publishing it. To say it has been a labor of love would be an understatement. Thank you to everyone who ever read it and a special thanks to anyone who ever reviewed or commented on it. And to everyone who will ever read it in the future. _

_To my consultants much thanks again for putting up with my questions, comments, and concerns. And in particular Dal Niente for dealing with my mild freakouts and total meltdowns. _

_And to my beta Sharelle, there aren't words to describe how much your support has meant to me. If writing this story was like giving birth, you its midwife. I have never written a multi-chapter ANYTHING before and you've helped me bring out the best here. Thank you for your time, your patience, your skill, and for recommending the crab ravioli. _

_In the time it took me to write this I came across this quote : "It is not flesh and blood, but the heart, which makes us fathers and sons." - Johann Schiller. Truer words were never spoken. _

_Title : Fathers and Sons, Epilogue_

_Author : Dani Kin_

_Genre: Drama_

_Rating: PG-13_

_Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. But things are certainly looking up by the time the warden finds himself meeting a certain nosey reporter for dinner. _

_Beta : Sharelle. _

* * *

><p>~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~<p>

The warden easily spotted Roxanne Ritchie standing near the bar as soon as he entered the restaurant. She was wearing a tasteful blue dress with a thick belt of black leather and he chuckled to himself. The boy would like that outfit. A lot.

Speaking of, he didn't see Megamind anywhere and the boy was usually quite hard to miss. The warden made his way over to the renowned reporter. She smiled when he caught her eye.

"Lovely to see you again, Miss Ritichie," the warden said, greeting her with a warm smile of his own.

"You too, Warden. I just heard from Megamind and he's been called into the field. So I'm afraid we may be on our own tonight," she explained with a regretful little sigh.

She quickly read the worry that flickered across the warden's face, and added, "Nothing too intense. There is a fire down at pier 9 and the brainbots are trying out their new protocols to contain the damage. It doesn't sound like anything particularly dangerous and he swears he will try to join us later if he can."

The warden visibly sighed in relief to hear the boy probably wasn't in danger. Well, not any more danger than he was usually in. The worrying was the one thing that hadn't changed with Megamind's move from villain to hero. He supposed it would be too much to ask the boy to turn over another new leaf and find a danger-free calling in accountancy or something.

"That's too bad. Interested in a drink before we sit down?" the warden asked gesturing towards the bar. She nodded. He ordered a glass of scotch and insisted on paying for her white wine before they were seated.

"You know, he speaks so highly of you," Roxanne said with such openness that the warden almost blushed as he took his seat.

"I didn't know. But thank you. It's... um, it's been a good six weeks," the warden replied. He was still struggling to find a socially appropriate way to acknowledge all that had happened between himself and the boy.

The calls had been so tense at first, and the warden was still amazed that he could call him on a whim. And even more remarkable, that they could have conversations at all without masks and double-speak. There had been a few fights and even more awkward moments for sure, but the warden reveled in moving forward after years of giving up. He was pretty sure he'd talked to the boy more in the last few weeks then in the last decade.

And his jaw had nearly hit the floor when Megamind called him out of the blue on Tuesday to nervously ask the warden to meet him and Roxanne for dinner. Though what he had actually said was "Do you want to go to ah, um, restaurant and meet my girlfriend - I mean I know you know her, everyone knows her, but you should come and uhh, talk to her about things fathers talk to their sons' girlfriends about – Yes, Minion, I know! But meeting parents is an important step in social dating rituals! – ….Um, are you still there?" Even now the warden had to chuckle at the memory.

"I cannot thank you enough for getting him that lawyer," he said to Roxanne. "And for encouraging him to talk to me."

The warden paused for a moment before saying seriously, "I owe you. More then you can know."  
>Roxanne held his gaze for a moment then nodded.<p>

"Sometimes he just needs a little push and a touch of confidence," she said as she smiled demurely, somehow telling the warden just how much she felt for the boy without actually saying the words.

"He's lucky to have you to help him with all this," the warden said as he reached for the menu in front of him.

"Well, I've come a long way from the fresh-faced cub reporter you once frightened out of your office," she said with a knowing look, before she took a sip of her wine.

"You never told him about that did you?" he asked, folding his hands over the menu. Best to cut right to the chase.

"Nope."

"Did you know he was going to come to my office in disguise?"

"I didn't know," she sighed, setting down her wine glass. "But I thought it was... likely. He hates to admit it, but he can be somewhat predictable."

"And you didn't warn him that I had a history of chasing people out of my office with a stick if they came around asking those kind of nosy questions? Questions about him?" the warden pressed, trying to understand.

Roxanne Ritchie gave him that knowing smile once again. "In my profession, Mr. Woodridge, you learn that there are things that people need to be told. And then there are things they need to figure out on their own."

_Damn_, the warden thought. She really was smart. No wonder the boy adored her.

"Please, call me James," the warden responded with a warm smile. "I have to say, I was surprised when he called about this. Everything with him - being a hero – it's taking some getting used to. I try not to take up too much of his time. I know he's got a lot on his plate right now."

"Are you kidding? He pretty much marvels at his phone every time you call. I think he would call you more, but he's always so worried about bothering you," Roxanne shook her head and smiled as she scanned her menu.

"Really?" the warden asked, not bothering to hide how pleased he was by that revelation.

"Can I ask, have you ever thought about getting a cell phone?"

"Uh... Can't say I've ever really needed one before," the warden responded with a little shrug. "And I'm a pretty old dog to learn new tricks."

"Well, he would probably call more if you got one. He's mentioned it to me several times but for some reason he's hesitant to bring it up with you."

The warden had a pretty good idea of why.

"I think he just wants to text you," Roxanne continued with a good natured smile that put the warden at ease. "I'm afraid I've turned him into a bit of a text message addict. So you should probably look at models that are conducive to scores of random texts at all hours from an antsy supergenius."

"Any recommendations?" The warden asked with an exaggerated sigh of weary bemusement, fully prepared to forsake sleeping well if it meant he would hear from his son more often.  
>"Oh, he's the one you should ask about that," she responded with a mischievous laugh. "He had way too much fun when we went shopping for his and he's already taken it apart and filled it with his own homemade hardware half a dozen times."<p>

The warden gave a knowing smile and nod. "That's my boy."

Roxanne smiled then shook her head. "I wish he was here right now, James. He's been bouncing off the walls about this dinner for two days. And you know how hesitant he can be about being out in public when he isn't grandstanding. Stupid fire."

"I'm surprised you didn't get called in on it," the warden remarked, as he picked up the nearly-forgotten menu and got serious about picking something off the list of entrees.

"Well, they called," she said matter-of-factly. "But I told them to send someone else since this was my night off, and I had dinner plans with my boyfriend's father."

The warden didn't even have time to respond to that before her face lit up as she looked over his shoulder in the crowded restaurant. It wasn't hard to guess what, or more specifically who, she must be looking at.

He turned. Megamind waving wildly at them as he zigzagged between tables towards their corner of the crowded restaurant.

The boy looked entirely out of place, and not just because of his skin color or his tight bodysuit or spiked gloves. Mostly because he was covered in smudges of what looked like black soot with a frantic look on his face.

"Did I miss it?" Megamind's eyes were wide as he approached, ignoring the stares of the other patrons in the restaurant. "Am I too late?"

"No," the warden and Roxanne both answered in unison.

"We haven't even gotten to the embarrassing stories about you as a baby yet," Roxanne added teasingly as he arrived at their table. Megamind shot her a brief smile that carried the faint trace of a blush before straightening.

"That should be entertaining for you, Miss Ritchie, as that I was a very intelligent and charismatic child," he said smugly, giving the warden a knowing look that indicated that he expected the older man to make him look good.

The warden responded with a snort. "Your favorite hobby was chewing on your own hand."

Megamind looked away quickly, the tips of his ears flushing bright pink and the warden cringed. Things between him and the boy were so tenuous, and he didn't need to blow it by picking on him.

"Awww, that is too adorable."

Megamind looked up to see Roxanne practically melting at him from across the table. His elastic face quickly shifted into a giddy grin.

"Are you just gonna stand there all day?" the warden asked, his gruff tone betrayed by his affectionate smile. Megamind quickly wiggled into the empty seat and he fidgeted nervously for a moment. Then he looked between the two and took a big breath, straightening in his chair and rolling his shoulders back.

"Warden, this is Roxanne. My girlfriend," Megamind said, beaming with pride as he made an elaborate show of stating the obvious. Then he pointed from one to the other. "And Roxanne, this is my father."


End file.
